To Rise Above
by Verse Gypsy
Summary: Part Two in the trilogy. Deke "Mustang" Flynn begins his quest to realize himself, learns being a hero requires more than he thought, and joins a new team in the process. New OC's introduced and an original team. Lemons present. Sequel to "To Stand on Two Feet." Introducing also Red Hood, Scandal Savage, and Ravager
1. Chapter 1

I own none of this, besides my OC's, no brand names listed are mine, but I'm not making money from this either. I love reviews and reader interaction so please, hit me up! Also, if anyone would like to beta and proof part three, I'd appreciate a volunteer.

If I could also take a moment to give a shoutout to IllusoryGentleman, who took the time to give a read to part one and offer some advice for part two.

* * *

June 28th  
Destin Florida  
1130 CST

What used to be a quiet fishing village just south of an Air Force base, had become something of a major tourist destination, in an act of cultural evolution spanning almost forty years. The relics of the city's history could still be seen however. A boat garage, built not far from the marina, sat quiet and unused, gathering dust, while people vacationed and worked, just outside. This building was huge, at one point long ago being one of the major repair shops for all the fishermen, and had a history of being a place where things got fixed.

And that tradition was going to live on.

"Recognize Mustang E zero three." The zeta tube in the corner called out, before the yellow light flashed, and the technology deposited the traveler inside the warehouse style building. Many boxes were laying out, in neat stacks with what looked like purpose, with other things covered in drop cloths. The walls and floors were metal and concrete, and the interior looked brand new. Deke considered the place for a moment and decided he was too excited to form a proper opinion just yet. "Somebody order the bad Kenny Chesney impersonator?"

"You're late." A vaguely accented voice from behind a stack of crates called out. The speaker sounded European, and annoyed. "Care to assist us?"

"Yeah, sure." Deke said as he pushed his senses out, picking out four separate thought patterns. He walked over that way to see who he'd be working with. Once he'd rounded the corner though, he was immediately tackled into a huge hug.

"Welcome brah!" Deke's friendly assailant all but yelled, as he drew his new teammate up and squeezed. When he sat Deke down, and was more properly in view, Deke took a moment to look at him.

"I thought I was big." Deke said. His huggy new teammate was several inches taller and wider than he, also long haired, extremely tan, and covered in tattoos with lines and repeating triangle patterns. He was barely dressed, wearing only swimming shorts and sandals, though he was littered with wood and shell jewelry. Everything about the guy seemed genuine though, like he was born to be a friendly pile of massive muscles.

The big man quietly snickered and offered a hand. "I'm Koa, pleased meet you brah!"

Deke took it and shook. "Mustang, pleased to meet you too." He said, happy for such a warm welcome, determining then and there that he was going to like this Koa. Then he looked at the others in the room.

A fussy looking little blonde man in spectacles, white polo shirt and slacks, was reviewing something on a tablet. He was possibly the most plain human being in the history of plain people. He glanced at Deke, who'd removed his long rider coat and cowboy hat, and frowned. "I think we're going to need more food." He said, and this was the source of the European sounding accent. "Forgive me. I am Fractal, and this is…" he said, gesturing to his left, but that person was also approaching Deke.

"Hi," she said to him in a sultry tone. Also blonde, wearing a bikini, and using it to show off some rather impressive assets. "I'm also _very_ happy to meet you." She said as she put a hand on his chest, completely ignoring the concept of personal space. The action made Deke extremely uncomfortable, especially considering he'd had to kiss his girlfriend goodbye in Rhode Island not five minutes ago, and probably still had some of her lipstick staining his lips.

"That's Godiva." The fourth person said, moving to clear the blonde away from their new arrival. "And she's done that to everyone, and I do mean everyone." She said. This young woman was tiny, darker skinned, black haired, and also had a faint accent. Kind of British but there was something else to it. Dressed in plain jean shorts and a tee shirt, she seemed perfectly content to be herself, which was a fairly pretty Indian girl. Her tone of voice was exceptionally sunny and bright though, and she radiated a sense of peace.

The blonde girl, Godiva just smirked at the Indian girl. "My offer still stands." She said, and went back to the stack of boxes, casually picking up barehanded, a crate that could have held a small automobile.

"I am Daeva, by the way. I'm happy to meet you." She said, and she emphasized the Ay sound in her name, making certain it couldn't be confused with Diva.

Deke took a moment to sort his thoughts. He was going to be working with some seriously interesting personality types, that was for damn sure. Koa and Daeva were very kind spirited souls, and seemed to wear their hearts on their sleeves. Godiva was, well, Deke didn't want to judge her on one meeting, but he still worried she might be trouble. Fractal was tight, controlled, and seemed fussy. Also he seemed to be a take-charge type, because he began directing people in finishing the setup for their small base.

"I suppose we're the heavy lifters." Godiva said, lugging another huge crate like she was carrying a puppy. Deke was currently moving a stack of crates towards another corner of the room, referencing a layout for them on Fractal's tablet.

"Looks that way." Deke said, trying to be nice. He was still new to the whole friends thing and didn't want to upset people he was going to be working with. "That even a lick of effort for you?"

"Nope." She said with a wink, and set the box down before carefully pulling the whole side wall off. Inside was what looked like commercial kitchen equipment. "Got the kitchen here." She said.

"Good." Fractal said, and turned to look at Koa. He'd been busy putting together furniture, but when he saw the bigger equipment, he put the allen wrench aside and got onto that. "Our first test is to actually put our home in order. They gave us tools, walls, and hookups, and little else." Fractal added.

"They forgot the AC." Deke muttered, understanding why Koa and Godiva were in bathing suits. He was already dripping sweat. With the heat outside, the metal walls were turning the place into an oven, and the few windows were already open.

"Once we get to it, I'll be installing it." Fractal said, going back to his tablet. "But unfortunately, it appears as though the box wasn't labeled correctly."

It was several more hours of miserable work. Deke had sucked it up and ditched his shirt, lamenting his choice of blue jeans. Daeva had also swapped her clothes for a bathing suit as well, though she had selected a much more demure one piece. Godiva had still made eyes at her though.

Fractal though, still in the same clothes he'd been wearing, and not a drop of sweat. It was kind of unnerving. Deke was going to say something, until a whirring sound and a quiet hum began to happen, followed shortly by cold air flooding the place. The collected young heroes stopped a moment, relieved by the air conditioning, until someone spoke up.

"We never found the HVAC." Daeva said.

"I did." Fractal said, but it was coming from the doorway that led from the main portion of the base to the outside. He too was soaked in sweat, his pale skin already extremely red. This Fractal was wearing the same polo, but had shorts and sandals on, as well as sunglasses. "It was with the things meant for the outside."

Koa snickered, apparently he knew about this. The rest were simply baffled. Fractal walked inside and headed to his other self, and waved a hand through his own head. The hologram disrupted and fell apart, leaving only a small black puck shaped object on the floor, which he pocketed.

"I was wondering why you were straw bossing." Deke said, and then another thought hit him. "I wasn't looking outside when I got here. How'd I sense your presence?"

"I too am somewhat psychic, except I control electronics and machines. My thoughts were a part of this device." Fractal said, taking a moment to sit down.

"You can read minds?" Godiva asked, suddenly interested again. "What am I thinking?"

Deke tapped her thoughts, and immediately regretted it. He turned a bright shade of red and just shook his head, unable to process what she was thinking. Godiva laughed and went back to her work, which at this point was helping Koa set the kitchen equipment up.

Deke just set about cleaning the place, having what he could only assume to be, the most useful powers for the job. Remembering what he'd been taught about opportunity, he spoke up. "So, what exactly can we all do? Captain Atom said we were all supposed to be heavy lifters and big hitters."

Koa was the first to speak up. "I was modified with Atlantean biotech. I can breathe water, swim fast, and I'm pretty tough."

"Weather and elements." Daeva said humbly. To what degree, she apparently wasn't willing to say. "I can fly as well."

"Technopath and a bit more." Fractal said as he helped Godiva and Koa work on their kitchen. "I can fuse machines and equipment."

"My talents are varied." Godiva said, and approached Deke again, walking slow and swinging her hips. She leaned up against him and whispered. "Would you like to see?"

The moment was extremely uncomfortable for him. His body was reacting to stimulus his brain wasn't interested in. "I have a girlfriend." He stammered as she tilted her head up towards him, lips parting for a kiss.

And just like that, she stopped, took a step back, and frowned at him. "Yes, you apparently do. I can control pheromones, but it's harder for me to control someone with them if they're powerfully invested emotionally."

"So, you're like Queen Bee?" Fractal asked. "Most men and some women?"

Godiva nodded. "All I have to do is flip their switch, even a little bit, and they're mine for a while." She sashayed back to her task, which at the moment was spreading instructions out to finish some of the construction.

"What about the rest? You were lifting very large boxes." Daeva pointed out.

"Yeah, tough and strong too." Godiva said, waving her hand lackadaisically. "Don't ask how, I've always been like this."

They worked long into the evening, setting up prefabricated shelving and cabinets, furniture, and the other basics of living. Fractal had set about the task of handing the computer equipment, using his powers to fuse lines together and set things where they needed to go. While he worked, he'd point out things that needed done here or there, proving to be a natural leader. Deke didn't know about the rest, but he was perfectly okay with it. He wasn't a take charge kind of person to begin with.

Since her powers were of little use to them, Daeva had spent time making sure the team was eating and keeping hydrated, and would take over what they were doing so that they could get breaks. She reminded Deke of M'gann. Well, before that massive blowout she and Superboy had anyway. That was a rather uncomfortable time in the mountain for sure. He'd wound up going bowling with Blue and Mal when it had happened.

They weren't finished, not yet, but their efforts weren't in vain. Fractal had used Koa and Godiva to maneuver the massive television the League had given them, and made sure he'd gotten their satellite dish set up. Deke was busy sorting their trash, using his powers to pull nails from boards and split the crates and pallets down. While he worked, his thoughts drifted, thinking about Babs. She'd promised to come check out their base soon, but she had a several day mission ahead of her that she couldn't talk about. He had faith in her, but he'd worry all the same.

"You seem lost in thought Mustang." He heard Daeva say. When he looked at her, she studied his face for a moment. "Are you well?"

She had scooted a large box of kitchenware with her, and sat down to begin opening them, things like pots and pans, tools, and the like. Deke set the last of the broken down crates in a corner to go out, and went to assist his teammate.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Missing someone is all." He said, opening a box of commercial skillets.

"You should call her, if it's possible." Daeva said, carefully unpacking some kitchen knives. "Is she very special to you?"

"Yeah," Deke said, opening up a rice cooker and trying to figure the thing out. "that's one way to put it. I can't call her though. She's a cape like the rest of us, but she's on some kinda hush hush gig."

"Then I hope she's safe." She said, and the feeling of care that she was pushing was so sincere that Deke felt like hugging her. "We were planning on going to the beach tonight. I hope you'll be joining us." She added.

"Sounds good." Deke replied, taking a series of stock pots out of their boxes, and nesting them within one another for easier storage. He was going to grab something else when their computer system hummed to life all on its own.

Fractal was right there, his hands hovering over the holographic interface. In an instant, a screen popped up to show Captain Atom's face. "Team. I'd hoped you could have had time to settle in, but you've got a mission." Everyone darted over at that.

"The Pensacola Naval Air station is radioing in a distress call. We have reason to believe they're under attack by Black Manta's forces. Three days ago, they received shipment of prototype air to air missiles; we believe that's the goal. Stay sharp and send them packing."

Well, there was that. "How we getting there?" Koa asked, as he ran to the door and stopped halfway there.

"Zeta tube. Pensacola has a location near the base." Fractal said, his clothing shifting and warping into a full body getup with constantly shifting fractal patterns. Daeva dashed off and grabbed a gym bag, and Godiva just shrugged and headed towards the Zeta platform still in her bikini.

Deke tossed on his shirt, and then whipped his coat around in a neat little dressing trick Nightwing had taught him. He added his hat, and as he was stepping onto the Zeta platform, Daeva was following him, hastily tugging on a very loose looking outfit inspired by East Indian traditional fashion.

The Zeta platform began recognizing them, and one by one, they flashed away.


	2. Chapter 2

June 29th  
Pensacola Florida  
0000 CST

Upon arriving at Pensacola, Mustang lifted the team telekinetically, and then took off straight up. He was still a flying brick, so he had to wait until Fractal used some kind of arm computer to point the correct direction. After that, he'd added forward momentum, and they were off like a shot.

As they flew, they could see flashes of light coming up, the obvious signs of some kind of combat. "Drop me brah!" Koa shouted, seeing as the Naval air station was near water. Mustang let his grip on his teammate drop, and the aquatic member of the team simply fell, plummeting into the water.

They got to the firefight, and Mustang dropped altitude, letting Godiva and Fractal touch ground. Daeva also asked to be released, and when he did, she held herself aloft, floating near her teammate. Mustang threw up a telekinetic shield to protect them while they got their bearings. Against lasers, it wasn't as effective, but as a physical barrier, it did absorb some of the energy from the Manta trooper's weapons, rendering them still dangerous, but not immediately fatal.

Fractal called to one of the Navy guards, who rushed over. "We're here to help." He said, and the guard pointed towards the clustered group.

"Bunch of black armored guys, they're trying to get into the weapons depot. We'd have never caught them if their equipment hadn't failed." The sailor said, and went back to trying to fight back against the Manta troopers.

"Move in." Fractal ordered, and he and the team covered the distance. Mustang simply fortified himself, Daeva took to the darkened skies, and Godiva drew attention away from Fractal. Either the decision to do battle in a bikini was fortuitous, or this was part of her all around combat strategy.

The Manta troopers spread out, firing in squads, but lightning began striking around them, making it hard to organize themselves. Daeva had to be careful not to directly strike any of them, but even a few feet away, the effect was devastating. Mustang grabbed groups of them and just shook the hell out of them before tossing them aside. Once close enough, Godiva, who'd been taking shots from them without slowing, just waded in, whooping ass as she liked it. The troopers just didn't have enough gun to put her down. The whole while, Fractal was keeping under cover, occasionally shouting out warnings.

It wasn't all he was doing though. He'd taken cover behind a hummvee, and had started gathering materials. At his beckoning, pieces of scrapped out Manta equipment, things which had failed to perform. (his instinctive understanding of machines told him the power relays were faulty, and the purpose of the device was to silently breach a heavily fortified wall.) These chunks, plus parts from the hummer, began almost melting, and flowing together.

A mental command began fusing the laser breaching device with the battery, alternator, and wiring from the military vehicle. This misshapen mass began to reform itself, sprouting spiderlike legs and a head. Then, it popped out arms with rotating lasers for hands, and turned on the Manta troopers, peppering them with laser fire and forcing them under cover for safety.

Mustang mouthed a What the hell? and kept persistent on the Manta troopers. Their armor was made to handle pressure so slamming them about wasn't as effective as he thought it'd be. They went down, but they'd be right back up. He was tanking them, not being proactive.

He remembered some of his training, this lesson at the hands on Robin. As a smaller guy, he used his brains as much more effective weapon than his body, so his insight was often more valuable than just knowing how to hit someone. Mustang was better at manifesting cutting energy than percussive, so he applied that, gesturing towards the Manta troopers.

The air was filled with a very high pitched shrieking sound, and the barrels of their weapons began detaching, falling to the ground useless. A few exploded, the cutting energy hitting the wrong part of the laser rifle. He hoped their armor would keep that from being a fatal mistake on his part.

Daeva kept up her assault as well, whipping up small tornadoes which drew troopers in, and would spit them out across the tarmac. More lightning would follow, striking the ground, but dispersing its energy as it did, catching several with some nasty shocks.

It was Godiva who finally broke them though. She'd put on a focused determination and hadn't stopped mowing through them like an angry gorilla. The troopers finally broke ranks when she tossed two of them into the water the Naval Air station neighbored. They ran, following their tossed comrade, but once the first few got into the water, they turned tail and ran into the rest, causing a major cluster.

Koa came up out of the dark water, his hair hanging around his face, framing a furious expression. He was yelling in another language, slapping himself about the arms and chest as he walked, and stalked towards them. A few got brave and tried to attack, but they were beaten down quickly. Finally, the diminished mob surrendered.

"They had a sub down there." Koa called out. "They don't have that sub no more." He added, seeming very pleased with himself.

* * *

A hundred miles south, sitting on the Floridian shelf, another minisub docked with a much more massive undersea vessel. Two women exited this miniature sub, and walked up to the owner, who had come to greet them. One of them bore equipment which matched up thematically to Deathstroke. The other one was a powerful looking woman, who wore a halter and tight pants, and had bladed gauntlets on her wrists.

"Scandal, Ravager." Black Manta said in a welcoming tone. "I take it you were successful?"

The one in black, Scandal Savage, handed Black Manta a thumb drive. "The distraction went off as planned. The Navy has no idea we gained access to their secure servers. You should enjoy the information."

"We ran into a problem." Ravager said, pulling the blue and orange bandanna off her silver hair. "Some people showed up. They weren't league, and they weren't the league's kids either, but they were definitely powered. If you want to hit them, now's the time. They're disorganized, don't work well together, barely understand what they're capable of."

This was disturbing news indeed. Black Manta mulled it over as he went to a corner of the sub hangar, and grabbed a briefcase. This, he handed to Scandal, who popped it open, pleased to see the diamonds, safely set into foam. "Pleasure doing business with you Manta. You can drop us off in Cuba."

"I'm setting course for Dubai if you'd prefer that." Manta said politely. No reason to be rude with these two. They were absolutely worth their asking price, and it was always better not to upset their respective parents. "We'll be passing South Africa, but those diamonds might not fetch such a good resell there, for obvious reasons."

Ravager considered his offer, and quietly conferred with Scandal. "We accept."

* * *

At their headquarters, the team was receiving a pretty unpleasant After Action Report from Captain Atom. Among his list of grievances was reckless behavior from Koa, damaging hummvee parts beyond repair for Fractal, and disregard for personal and general safety for Daeva, Godiva, and Mustang.

As a whole, the team took their lumps from the established superhero. He finally ended by reminding them that they were new, and the call was extremely sudden. Barring some kind of natural disaster that would require their response, they'd have some time to work their own kinks out, and to expect training opportunities soon.

"I'mma hit the showers." Deke muttered. The mood was low enough that Godiva had no comment to make about it. He tossed his coat and hat on the back of the sofa, and went to the small locker room. He was supposed to be better than this. He'd had training at the hands of several heroes, even one session with Black Canary. Yeah, it was pure luck that he happened to be there when she was working with Robin and Wondergirl, and needed a demonstration dummy, but she'd included him in the rest too.

Deke entered one of the tiny shower stalls and pulled the curtain. He turned the water on and just let it him him. Since this place was right on the ocean, the League had set it up with some kind of miniature desalination/purifier doodad, so he didn't feel bad about just letting it hit him for a while.

After a few moments, he heard the locker room door open, and someone messing around. Ignoring it, Deke just soaked himself a while, trying to let the water wash his perceived failure away.

"We were also praised for our efforts too you know." A feminine voice said from the stall next to him. The accent marked the voice as Daeva. Deke froze for a moment, but there was only the one locker room.

"Yep." He muttered from his own stall. "That should have been the important part of that whole call."

"And if you allow yourself the time to worry about it, then you can allow yourself time to consider all of our failures. We were all excited you know." Daeva said, taking her time in washing herself. "And we all have something to prove to someone. We were going to meet on the beach to talk about it and plan for tomorrow."

"That sounds awesome." Deke said. He washed quickly, and cut the water to dry himself off, finding the tiny stalls rather difficult to maneuver himself in. He'd wound up working out a lot with Mal, and had added some honestly earned muscle to his frame. Maybe it was time to back down a little.

In the other stall, the water also shut off. There was a moment of silence, before Daeva spoke up, sounding annoyed. "Bollocks. I seem to have left my towel on the bench. Could you help me?"

"Stick your arm out the curtain." Deke said, and pulled his own curtain back a bit. He saw her towel, and gestured beckoningly towards it, causing it to loft gently into Daeva's hand.

"Thank you." She said, drawing her towel into the shower. "Please tell everyone I'll be done shortly."

"Sure." Deke said, also beckoning towards his boxer briefs. He slipped them on, and got himself dressed in shorts and a tank top as quickly as he could, so Daeva could have her privacy. When he exited the small locker room, nobody else was in the base, so he headed outside. Already there was a small fire in the sand, no doubt made from the shipping crates and palettes he'd disassembled.

"Daeva'll be here shortly she said." Deke told his team, and pulled up some sand with the rest of them. The fire illuminated them with a red orange glow. Godiva seemed thoughtful, and dressed, surprisingly, actually wearing clothes instead of a swimsuit. Fractal looked aggravated, and his feelings weren't as restrained as they had been. Only Koa looked peaceful, though the fire lit his face up in the most intimidating way possible.

"Here brah," Koa said, handing Deke a bottle of coconut water.

"Thanks." He sipped at it, enjoying the fire and the lullaby of the ocean tides. Daeva eventually wandered out, still brushing wet hair, and took a seat among them.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us." Fractal began. "Before we begin, nobody objects to my handling of things?"

A series of no's came up among the rest of the team, so he continued. "First things. Is there anyone with legitimate concerns of identity? Trust is a vital first step, and if necessary, we can keep to first names only."

Again, nobody complained. "Very well. I am Kristof Hausmann. I am pleased to meet you all. I was born in Germany, just north of Frankfurt. My father was an American serviceman, so I moved here when my father retired." Fractal, well, Kristof said. "Who is next?"

"Madeline or Maddy is fine." Godiva replied. "I'd prefer to keep my last name private though. Personal reasons. I kinda grew up all over." She added, drawing her knees up to her chest and hugging them tightly.

Daeva was next. "Aasha Nagra. Born in New Delhi, moved to England before I could walk, and I came to America for college." She said, also taking a bottle Koa had offered.

"Deacon Flynn, but I prefer Deke. Small town in Kentucky called Greenup."

"I suppose I'm last. Liho Kamekona. Born and raised Waialua. North shore of O'ahu." Koa said. "And still pleased to meet you all."

"Excellent." Kristof said. "Shall we properly share our stories now? Who would like to go first?"

The gathered crew considered that one. Nobody seemed perfectly happy just getting it out of the way. That is, until Liho spoke up. "I'll go first." He said, still illuminated by the fire like some dangerous predator.


	3. Chapter 3

June 29th  
Destin Florida  
0230 CST

"I was raised pretty traditionally. Didn't really speak good English till around 5th grade. I learned to surf, and to sail, and was all in all a good boy I guess. My pop started teaching me Lua when I got to middle school. He wanted me to drop out around then, didn't like how many Haole were in my classes. I didn't get it till much later, but my pops was a pretty racist guy. Mom wasn't so old school though, so I got to stay." Liho said, digging his toes into the sand.

"I was out surfing one morning a couple years ago. I coulda made nationals, probably coulda went pro if I tried really hard, and I bailed. Not just a little bit, a lotta bit. I wound up eating reef, got all tore up from it. When I was down there, I saw these two people. I thought they were divers but they didn't have no gear. They grabbed me, and drug me back to this little submarine they had parked at the bottom."

"I passed out, on account I was almost dead I guess. Next thing I know, I'm waking up and there's all these people around me, talkin' funny, and I'm in a hospital bed. Some of these people were really messed up lookin' too, like scales and fish tails and weird eyes and stuff. One of the people was like a mermaid dude, with a dolphin tail. He told me I'd been dead for about two minutes but they were able to resuscitate me."

"I figured I got pulled outta the water and I was in the hospital on the good drugs, but I was wrong." Liho said, absently scratching at his arm. "He said I'd been down there like six months in a coma. They thought I wasn't gonna wake up. He told me, he said they had to fix so much muscle damage that they wound up replacing all my muscles. They did something to my lungs too, because they didn't have a dry environment. He said they were a research team from Atlantis, working on a scientific colony, and the people that found me were studying the coral. "

It was a long moment before Liho continued. "So, they were really nice to me, and when I realized it wasn't some dream, I kinda just let it happen, y'know? They helped me rehab and stuff, and then I got to go back home. When I got there, my folks flipped out, saying I was supposed to be dead, that a couple people saw me biff it and never come back up. They had divers out and everything. They rejected me too, saying I looked all messed up, called me a monster."

Aasha put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a warm smile. The very proud, very dangerous looking warrior was on the verge of crying. It took him a moment, but he picked his story back up. "I went back to the water, just dove in and swam. I found the research colony and asked if I could stick around. They didn't know what to do with me, but then this really pretty redheaded lady started talking to me. She was really nice too, and she said that her doctors fixed me up special and that it shouldn't go to waste, so she offered to allow me to work for her. She turned out to be some kinda queen lady. She had her people do some more stuff too me, which was pretty easy, I just got wrapped up in some funky seaweed for a while and itched. When they took it off, my hands and toes was webbed up, and my skin was tougher. She did some magic to my scars too, turned them into my tattoos. They don't do nothin' though, apparently you gotta learn their sorcery and that's just too hard for me."

"So, that's how I became a member of the Guardsmen of Queen Mera of Atlantis. She's the one who sent me here, told me that friends of hers were doing a thing and that she thought I could help. So, here I am." Liho said, finishing his story, and his bottle of water. He went for another, and offered a few more around.

"My parents, they were part of some kind of cult." Aasha said. "I don't claim to understand it, but they worshiped the old Hindu gods, but not like everyone else. Before I was conceived, they did rituals, and drank potions, and then worked hard to have me. I was possibly the most planned pregnancy in the world."

"They left India after I was born. I found out later they were trying to escape the cult they'd belonged to. I never got the details, but it seemed like these people wanted to keep me. All was well through most of my life. I was never my mother's expectations though. I didn't find my family's culture that interesting, and I wasn't okay with getting married at twenty and being a housewife. I still cannot cook to save my life. My father was just happy I was happy though, and my mother was more disappointed than vindictive."

"I began manifesting my powers around puberty, which was problematic, because as a young teenage girl with hormones I had no experience in controlling, and a rebellious streak a mile wide, being able to control weather and elements presented quite a challenge. It was a horrid man named John Constantine who discovered me, and offered to help my parents, though it cost them their entire savings to do so. He did help though, gave me some books on magic once he'd taught me basic things to keep myself under control. I would be rather satisfied if I never met him again though. He reeked of cigarettes and alcohol."

"I came to the United States to attend college, and wound up rediscovering my heritage a bit, when I began classes in Ivy Town. I didn't do much with my gifts, but I was still contacted by Doctor Fate. He's the one who offered me a position on this team. I still don't know how he knew who I was, or how to even find me." Aasha said, still sounding quite sunny. She pulled the hood up on her hoodie and laid backwards into the sand.

"Ok, so whatever." Maddie began. "I grew up bouncing between orphanages before I ran off, made money on a pole if the place looked the other way at my crappy fake ID. Black Canary found me when she busted the owner of the club I was dancing in. I meant it when I said I don't know anything about my powers too. I could just always do this stuff. Can we move on now?" Clearly, she was not interested in discussing her history, but her willingness to at least try seemed to suit her teammates well enough. Nobody pushed her for more.

"Hell, Fractal went first last time, he gets last go this time." Deke drawled. "I had a good family life I guess. Both parents were in the medical field. Dad was Navy, mom was a nurse. Dad bought it in Afghanistan, bled out from a gunshot trying to keep some Marines alive. Even got a Navy Cross for it."

"Powers came from a messed up accident involving some heavy equipment some guy had bought from a company that apparently doesn't exist anymore. Same accident probably gave my mom the breast cancer that took her from me. I took off to Gotham after that, wound up becoming homeless, living in a shelter."

"So, this one day, the director never showed up. We didn't think anything of it, figured she was sick or something. Week goes by though, and she never showed up, so I went out looking for her. Used my powers more than I probably should have, let myself get off the chain for it. I wound up tracking the guy down to this warehouse. I was gonna kill him too."

Deke strongly considered omitting the next part, but Fractal had been right. They needed to trust one another. "Batgirl stopped me. She saved me from myself, and that guy I was after too. She's the one that got me interested in the cape thing. She worked with another crew, I tried getting on there, but Captain Atom picked me for this instead, which is fine really. There was one guy on the other team, he didn't like me so much."

Deke yawned, and noticed the rest of the team was in a similar situation. "Go for it Kristof." He encouraged.

"Of course. My life was actually quite boring, when compared to everyone else's. I lived in Germany, off the base at my mother's insistence, though I attended school with the other children of servicemen. We came to this country when my father retired his commission, and I attended school in Central City."

"I interned at STAR Labs over the summer for extra credit, translating for a nanomolecular engineer from Dresden. It went quite well, except I am clumsy. I bumped into the experiment they were conducting. The nanomachines, which were supposed to bond with a special computer, instead bonded with me. Since the human brain operates through electrical impulse, the machines were able to translate my thoughts, and I've been working in tandem with them ever since. These machines, they're the reason I can manipulate materials as well as interact with electronics."

"After that, I tinkered and experimented on my own, until I caught the attention of the Flash, who requested I do something more productive with my abilities. That's why I am here." Kristof said, standing up. "We should get some sleep, tomorrow will be a busy day I think. We have much to work on."

Nobody could really argue that. Koa picked up a now sleeping Aasha, and carried her inside while Kristof followed them. Maddy was close behind, asking Koa something. Deke was dousing the fire, generating an airtight sphere around the fuel so that the fire would burn itself out. He held this effect for a while, watching the embers burn from orange to black. He finished by lifting the whole of the now burned out fuel into the water, and letting small perforations form in the sphere. The water rushed in, completely cooling the blackened wood, and Deke felt like there was a metaphor there he just wasn't catching.

Deciding he didn't want to deal with the trash, he resealed the telekinetic sphere holding the now wet charcoal and wood, and let extremely fine filaments of pure force generate in random locations. He then shook the sphere, letting the wood and coal tear itself apart into smaller and smaller pieces, until it was barely ash. This, he returned to the hollow of sand the fire had originally burned in, and buried the whole mess.

Absolute waste of time, but fun to watch all the same. Deke shrugged and walked back inside, heading towards the small bedrooms. Mount Justice had been made for the League, by the League, and had been much more comfortable. This place, which they hadn't even gotten around to naming, was designed and built on much more of a budget. Since they hadn't had enough time to properly move in, his room was in the most basic of states. He didn't even bother to put sheets on the bed. Instead, he flopped down on it, beckoned his duffel bag to his hands, and withdrew a small 5x7 photograph of Barbara. She was in sunglasses, hair pulled into a ponytail, and smiling brightly.

Deke touched her lips and got comfortable, hoping his teammates weren't all early risers.


	4. Chapter 4

July 15th  
Destin Florida  
1200 CST

The next couple of weeks were rough, and that's if any member of the team was feeling conservative. They'd taken advantage of the different terrains near their location, and had put themselves through some serious paces, pushing their abilities to the absolute limits. They took turns, trying to figure out new and exciting ways to challenge themselves. Of all of them, Daeva's hidden sadistic side was the worst. The girl could devise hellish activities seemingly at whim.

They were exhausting weeks, but they were productive too. The team was beginning to develop a much better handle of what each other could accomplish, which was something extremely vital for the work. Productive indeed, but it really was more a matter of exhaustion.

Deke was asleep in his small room, trying to recuperate from their training that morning. It was Koa's turn, and of course he had them learning and practicing Lua, a martial art native to Hawaii. It was an unforgiving art, and out of the whole team, only Fractal had any real previous martial arts experience in Akido, and not much of it either.

It was cold in his room. Deke kept it chilly for a few reasons, the main being him simply finding it easier to fall asleep that way, so when he felt himself getting warmer, he reacted, rolling over against the heat. This was nice, and so he instinctively snuggled against it, though a sudden horror crept up his spine, shaking him more and more awake. Godiva had been less aggressive with him after she found Koa was willing to entertain her company, but she still occasionally tried to mess with him.

Before opening his eyes, he took a slow inhale, and caught the scent of wildflowers in the hair tickling his nose. Eventually, he let his eyes creep open slowly, to see a mane of red hair, attached to a smiling face with bright blue eyes.

"Good afternoon sleepyhead." Barbara said to him, kissing him on the nose.

"Hey beautiful." Deke said, his excitement mixed with grogginess. He shook himself harder awake and sat up. Barbara was in one of his white button down shirts that he'd left for her, tied low around her belly button, revealing a black bikini beneath it all. "I take it you want to go swimming?"

"You guess correctly." She said, sitting up with him, though she pulled him right back down again, on top of herself, to get some kisses from him. They'd had a couple of skype calls since she'd had to go undercover a while back, that particular mission taking a lot longer than expected.

Deke wrapped his fingers into her hair with one hand, slipping his other under the small of her back. Barbara wrapped her arms around his neck in response, and they laid there, drinking deeply of one another, until the need for air became too great.

"I missed you Cowboy." She said with a warm smile.

"I missed you too." Deke said, taking her in for a moment. There was something different about her too. She could tell he'd noticed, and just sat there with an amused patience, waiting on him to figure out what it was.

Finally, it hit him. "You got your nose pierced?" It was a tiny stud, purple, on the right side, and it seemed to fit her just right, but there was something else. "There's purple in your hair too!"

"Yes and yes. They were for the undercover assignment. You like?" She asked, grabbing her sunglasses off his nightstand, and picking up a wide black sun hat from beside the bed.

"Yeah, a lot." Deke said. "I never pegged you for purple strips though."

"Oh, the color's on its way out. I'm keeping the stud though, I like it." She said, putting her hat on and grabbing his from the corner post of his bed to put on his head. She hadn't expected him to glom to the cowboy image so much, but he'd flat out told her that she inspired him. "Let's take a walk; there are a couple things I want to talk to you about."

That worried him a bit, though she'd been perfectly happy and pleasant. If she was going to want to have _a talk_ with him, he doubted she'd be in such a good mood. While she was well in control of her emotions, she still felt them quite strongly, and all he got from her was positive, and spunky.

Deke shrugged, pulled on a pair of board shorts, and followed her out. He didn't see it, but she had the biggest smile on her face, so proud of her boy willing to be himself and not hide from it. When she opened the door, however, a less than happy soul was looking back at him.

"You. Never. Said. You. Were. Dating. Batgirl." Godiva said with a scowl at him, and then looked at Barbara with a much more pleasant expression. "Look, I kept my hands to myself, and it was all a joke anyways, so we're cool, right?" She didn't even give Barbara a chance to answer before heading down the hallway in a hurry.

"Care to explain that?" Barbara asked, one eyebrow arched over her sunglasses.

Deke turned red and fumbled with his words for a moment. "Lady G does stuff with pheromones, and her powers don't work on me, on account of my powerful emotional investment in you. She tried acting sexy at me, but no luck. If it makes you feel any better, she wasn't lying, and she's terrified of you."

Barbara considered this a moment. "Yes, a little better." She said. Let the girl squirm a bit. Balancing her instinctual desire to be territorial with her mental desire to conduct herself in a fair and rational manner sometimes became difficult. Plus, she trusted her boy, and the idea that someone could control people like that, but couldn't control him because of how he felt about her? Money couldn't buy that kind of emotional security.

Deke shook his head, and walked with his girl out into the main common area, before he heard a thundering sound. Barbara heard it too, and turned just in time to get wrapped up in a huge hug. "Welcome sistah!" Koa all but bellowed. "We didn't hear you Zeta in!"

"It's because I overrode the security to surprise him." Barbara said, trying to breathe. She patted at his massive arms, trying to get him to let her down.

"That's Koa." Deke said. "Koa, this is Batgirl."

"Your girlfriend beautiful brah! You a lucky guy." Koa said, more proof he was comprised of at least 90% positive feelings.

"Mahalo brah. We were gonna hit the beach though, so, I kinda need her for that." Deke said. Koa set Barbara down with a sheepish smile.

"Okay. We all gonna hang later though, right?" The massive Hawaiian asked after them.

"Yup." Deke said, and offered Barbara his arm. "Let's see if we can get outta here before Daeva shows up too. She's been dying to meet you since the first time I mentioned you."

Once outside, they picked their way down to the beach and just started walking, letting the water wash up around their toes. "So, we have a couple of things to discuss." Barbara said as she took Deke's hand.

"Ok, what's up?" Deke asked, about to make a joke until common sense told him it might not be as funny as he thought it would be.

"The first is, that undercover mission. It gave a lot of leads that will need to be followed, and we're going to need some help. Captain Atom and Batman gave us the go-ahead to do some work together, if you're up for it."

Deke mulled this over a moment. They weren't up to Fractal's standards, but he'd even admitted he was a bad German stereotype in this respect. They'd come along though, and helping out something bigger was preferable to handling disaster rescue and relief, which largely meant a lot of training to do things they hoped they wouldn't need to be called upon to actually do. "Hell yeah. We're in. What's the other thing?"

"I start school in a month, and that means I'll be mostly living in Gotham. I'm taking a lot of weighted courses too, so coming down here might be tough. I'm willing to make this work, but I need to know you are too." She said, giving his hand a light squeeze.

Deke paused to look at her, like a modern day version of that woman from the movie with the jewelry store that his mom had loved to watch. "Hell or high water." He said plainly. "I'd fight Aquaman and the Devil himself."

Well, that was two bizarre people to combine to make that kind of statement. She didn't hate it though. She felt the same way. "So, you're okay with that? Skype calls at odd hours, probably having to contend with me frazzled at the hands of the Computer Science department?"

"Yeah, except the thing about Skype calls." Deke said. He'd chosen these particular shorts to wear for one specific reason. He reached into the pocket and withdrew a folded envelope, and handed it to Barbara.

She took it with a bemused expression, unfolded it, and read the letter. It was addressed to M. Deacon O'Connelly, and it had Gotham University letterhead. She read most of the letter silently; until she got to the end, her voice going from silent to an excited almost yell. "Gotham university department of pre-med would like to congratulate you on your acceptance to this program!"

She kissed him, deep, in front of the crowded beach. When she drew back, her excitement and joy were all over her face. "When did you do all this?"

"I uh, I took my ACT's and SAT's a few days after I got here, spent the last of my money expediting the whole process, and wrote my application and essay while I waited on the results." Deke said, continuing to walk with his girl down the beach. He'd been miserable with waiting to show her, happy to get that off his chest.

"Pre-med, that means you're going to be a doctor. Have you got a plan on what kind of medicine?" She asked, elated at the news.

"I dunno, maybe pediatrics, maybe just general practice." Deke said with a shrug. "I still gotta actually get the degree." He said, and it's something he'd been worrying about since he got the acceptance letter. The idea of failing out of medical school was terrifying.

She remembered telling him, the day she left the hospital, to take the stuffed bears to pediatrics, and wondered if that had influenced his decision. Regardless, it was extremely sweet. She was so proud of him, and he'd even gotten into Gotham U with her. "So, where else did you apply?" She asked as they found a less crowded spot of beach and took a seat.

"Nowhere else. Just Gotham U." He said, sitting down and putting his arm around her slender waist.

"What if they'd rejected your application?" Barbara asked, looking at her boy with a puzzled expression. "Were you just going to give up on school?"

"Naw, I would've applied other places. I just really wanted Gotham U. I wanted to be around you. It used to be, I loved you because I needed you, and now, I find I need you because I love you." He said quietly, his insides a mass of fear.

"Deke that's very swe… did you say you loved me?" She said, her body doing all kinds of things she didn't quite have a handle on. Her stomach was doing advanced acrobatics and her heart was quite off track.

Deke took his hat off and turned in the sand to look at her. "Yeah, I did. I have for a while now, but I didn't want to spook you or anything, like I'm afraid I have. You're spooked now, aren't you? You want me to leave you alone?" He asked, a shaking in his voice, somewhere between terror and confusion. She was impossible to read at the moment.

Until she grabbed him anyway, then it was pretty clear what she wanted. "About damn time." She said, kissing him again. It reminded him of their first kiss. Playful, but there was more gravity to it, though maybe that was his mind playing tricks on him, assigning substance where it seemed like it should be. "I love you too Cowboy." She said after a moment, her blue eyes bright.

"About damn time?" He asked, suddenly realizing what she'd meant. "When was I supposed to be saying so?"

"I dunno, yesterday, day before, maybe the day you realized it?" She said, poking him in the stomach several times, getting her desired reaction of tickling him. He tackled her in retaliation, (or more realistically, she let him tackle her) giving back some of the tickles she'd visited upon him.

They wrestled about a bit, but stopped short when they heard a family coming down the beach. Needing to breathe, they both just laid there a while, laughing and regaining themselves. "Cowboy, we have something really good." Barbara said to her boy, picking up his hat and putting it on. Given his look, apparently he thought she looked good in a cowboy hat. It reminded her that she'd never gone riding with him.

"Darlin', you are not wrong." He said, fully appreciating the moment.


	5. Chapter 5

July 15th  
Dubai, United Arab Emirates  
2100 GST

The ruckus in the other room was unmistakable. Walls echoing from being pounded by a headboard, a female voice calling out in the final moments of sex. It was positively infuriating to Scandal, who sat alone at a table in the rather luxurious hotel room, carefully sizing, appraising, and sorting the diamonds they'd received as payment from Manta. They made it difficult to think.

The door to the bedroom opened after a moment, and Ravager walked out, fully nude, and completely and totally uncaring about it. She was followed by a black haired man with piercing blue eyes, and if Scandal was being objective, he wasn't bad looking either. Not at all her type, on account of being male, but still, he was quite fit. She could see why Ravager had been interested.

It also helped that he wasn't quite so lackadaisical, and had pulled on pants before exiting the room. "Hey, was I right?" He asked, walking past Scandal to the small kitchen. He washed his hands, grabbed some water bottles, and set one down in front of her.

"Yeah, you were right. These diamonds are definitely a match to Angolan composition. I hate that it cost us a quarter million to find that out though." Scandal grumbled. She took a drink of her water and handed the man the data printouts. He was thorough, she couldn't deny it. When he'd contacted them for this particular venture, he'd brought some extremely high value equipment with him, probably the stuff stolen from an Antwerp exchange a few weeks prior.

"The diamonds were all scrubbed before we got them, I take it?" Scandal said, walking out of the bathroom in a hotel robe. She shook her silver hair out, her fingers getting caught in a couple of tangles.

"No prints, DNA, anything." Scandal confirmed. "But we know they're Angolan, so that's a start."

"We find the merchant then." The man said, rubbing his chin in thought.

"Narrow down a list of the worst people in Africa, sounds like a walk in the park." Ravager quipped. She wasn't what you'd call a kind and altruistic soul, but she'd said before, if she had a mustache, she wouldn't twirl it either.

"Someone else just steps up," Scandal said sourly. "We have to find who's pulling the strings. That means sifting through the diamond cartels. We're not going to Africa, we're going to Europe. We play this right, and we're not just rich, we're stupid rich."

The man frowned as he stood up. He needed the money, but it was a means, not an end. "We'll fly out for Monaco tomorrow. Rose, can you get us something private, preferably under the radar?"

"One phone call." She said with an arrogant smile, and watched him go for his bag, sitting casually by the sofa. He reached into it and withdrew a pair of Glock 19's. The butt of one of them caught on the open flap though, and a shiny red metal helmet rolled out and onto the expensive marble floors.

Jason Todd picked his red 'hood' up, and returned it to the bag before sitting down to clean his current favorite pistols. As he disassembled them, his brain began working. Trained by Batman, and later by others, his tactical mind was among the peak of humanity. He had to assume that Batman at least, probably the League as a whole, were following the same leads that pointed him towards Manta.

"We're going to have to account for obstacles." Jason mentioned as he ran a brush down the bore of his pistol. "We've got finesse covered, we need a tank or two. Any ideas?"

Scandal piped up, though her tone wasn't exactly excited. "Yeah, I have just the person," She said, already picking up her phone to fire off a text message. "I'd rather not split the take any more after this though."

"Agreed." Ravager said, sharpening a knife. "You might be in this for some crusade, but I've got a lifestyle to maintain. Bills don't pay themselves and Lamborghini is releasing the Huracan later this year."

Scandal was going to say something, but decided against it. Ravager was good to have in a scrap, and her taste in performance automobiles was excellent. Why she didn't just steal one when she needed one was beyond her though.

"Ok, one more person then, if you trust them to slow down what's probably coming our way." Jason said, already formulating plans and contingencies. Nightwing would be there, most certainly. He had to be, with Batman busy with the League. His desire to kill his former partner had muted, but embarrassing him still wasn't off the table.

He wouldn't come alone either. Word was, Roy Harper had let himself slip, and Wally had retired from the game after moving in with Sportmaster's daughter. Dick wouldn't be alone though, he'd have backup.

"I trust her enough." Scandal said cryptically, but she clarified herself when Jason gave her a questioning look. "For a fair share of the take, she'll play ball, but don't expect her to be friendly company."

At that, her phone chimed. Scandal picked it up and the lock screen showed a text notification. "I'm in." was the reply, and the contact information listed her name as 'Knockout'. Scandal opened the message and began sending details to her on-again/off-again lover, ending the message telling her to get to Monaco and that they'd meet up.

* * *

July 15th  
Destin, Florida  
1400 CST

Deke and Barbara had swum aimlessly, just happy to be in each other's company. The general attitude of 'no shirt, no shoes, no problem' among the businesses riding the edge of the beach became a lifesaver after a short while though. As a natural redhead, Barbara experienced an almost vampiric level reaction to sunlight, and had to stop and buy sunscreen, even with the loose white shirt and wide hat she wore. It was, perhaps, a bit late.

"I'm burnt to a crisp." She muttered, sitting miserably on the sand, drinking a soda while her friend and lover applied sunscreen to her. "And you're just sitting back there, not a care in the world, getting darker and darker."

She was right, though Deke wasn't about to agree with her. Sunburn or not, she could still kick his ass. He took the sun extremely well, one of the few really positive traits he was born with. "It's not that bad." He told her as he daubed more sunscreen on her back, just enjoying being able to touch her. As he worked, he set about the task of encouraging her body to heal faster, something she noticed immediately.

The feeling wasn't as strong as the first time he'd done this (that she was awake for at least), but that same trippy sensation washed over her again. "Thank you." Barbara said, craning her neck around to look at him. Deke planted a smooch on her, and just kept massaging the sunscreen into her skin.

"It's not like you see a lot of sunlight in your line of work anyway, so there's that." He told her. They were sitting on a small wall, outside of a little beach shop, both looking out over the Gulf of Mexico. "I'm glad you're here for this though."

"It's not all play. I left a day early to have some time with you. After that, it's going to be a lot of briefing and training." Barbara said, relaxing into his touch. She let out a quiet, contended moan, and sipped at her drink. "We've got a lot of ground to cover if we're going to make this work. Everyone's relying on us to get our teams working together."

"Kristof's good at keeping things running smooth, but he ain't so hot at improvising, so we're actually working with having a flexible lead. Trust ain't there yet though, that'll be the hard part." Deke said thoughtfully, finally finishing with her back.

"They'll have to learn it quick. Do you think anyone will be trouble?" Barbara asked, re-tying her shirt at her navel.

"Naw. Koa's like me, we're grunts, we'll go where you point us." Deke said, guessing at what she was driving at. "And deep down, Lady Gee wants validation, she'll work with a team no problem.

"Nightwing wants to mix the teams to maximize our strengths and minimize weaknesses, do you trust them to find their role and play it?" She asked. This would be good for both teams, but especially the new people. Getting it right was important to make sure everyone grew.

"Well, we're a bag of hammers, so long as our role involves nails, it won't be a problem." Deke mused, pleased with his analogy. He didn't find the concept of being a big blunt instrument offensive. Oftentimes when someone needed a hammer, nothing else would do, and being the only thing useful at a moment had a nice feel to it.

Barbara just shook her head at her boy, snickering quietly at him. "I love you, you silly boy." She said, giving him a peck on the cheek.

"Love you too darlin'." He said, the words magical to speak. "Say, you hungry?"

"Starving." Barbara said. She hadn't eaten since dinner last night, unless she was willing to count a protein shake after her morning workout, which she wasn't going to do.

"There's a place halfway to the base, little beachside joint I think you'll love. We can grab some lunch, but I want to take you to dinner tonight." Deke said.

"What kind of place? I didn't bring much in the way of luggage." Barbara said worriedly. She had packed her uniform, a bathing suit, and two very relaxing civilian outfits. "Do I need to buy something halfway decent?"

"Probably not. But if Lady G or Daeva don't have anything you can borrow, there's plenty of places to shop here." Deke said. "Though I'll be honest, you could wear a potato sack and still look badass."

Barbara colored pink at his words. "Smooth words Cowboy."

They walked a short distance longer, and stopped for a quick lunch at a beachside crab shack. The food wasn't anything to write home about, but their milkshakes were. Barbara sipped at her chocolate strawberry and pondered thoughtfully, but happily. She was not unloved in this world, something she felt fortunate for near daily. Her dad, Bruce, Dick, Tim, many people on the team, and she loved them in return. That she shared love with someone that she could express so fully though, was both a liberating, and almost terrifying feeling. The feeling of vulnerability to her feelings, to another person, it was scary. That she knew, as a profound and incontrovertible truth, that he was just as vulnerable to her though, that was the closeness and connection that drove her romantic wants.

"Cowboy?" Barbara said after several quiet moments.

"Hrm?" Deke grunted, looking up from his sandwich. She had this serene look on her face. Since she was usually such an expressive girl, he wasn't sure what she was thinking, which for a psychic was probably not something he should admit.

"I'm glad things happened the way they did." She said to him, and kissed him on the nose.

"Me too." He said with a shy smile.

They spent a while longer on the beach, taking their sweet time walking back to the team's base in relative quiet. On their way, an errant football flew through the air to land at their feet. Both of the couple looked down the beach and saw someone running towards them, arms up to catch a return toss.

"You mind sending that back please?" He shouted to them.

Deke bent down, picked the ball up, and was about to lob a pretty horrible toss when he felt an emotional shift in his beloved. Politely, he handed her the ball and stepped aside, and watched her rocket the thing towards the guy. He was so surprised he almost fumbled the ball again.

"Dad never let a little thing like me being a daughter instead of a son stop him from wanting to toss a football with me." She said with a wink.

Once they got back to the base, Barbara asked to use their showers to wash off the salt and sand from her beach trip with her boy, while he explained what he knew about Nightwing's plan for the two teams. When she'd finished, she exited the tiny stall and got dressed in her one halfway decent civilian outfit, a long breezy skirt and a loose white button up that could go from quite appropriate to very inappropriate with just a button or two.

She kept her hair down, and took the time to switch her contacts for her regular glasses. The lenses tinted in light so they'd work to throw off the outline of her face. There were two competing theories among female superheroes about how best to conceal and deflect their identities. Black Canary and Zatanna were of the first opinion. Their costumes were revealing and provocative, so people were less likely to focus on their faces. Barbara and Cassie were more the other opinion, wearing conservative costumes and dressing more flattering in their day to day clothing choices.

Barbara plugged her hair dryer brush into the wall and make quick work of her wet hair, before moving onto her makeup. She didn't feel the need to go full bore, so she kept to the very basics. Once finished, she left the locker room, and went into the common area the team shared.

Deke was sitting there, still talking to them. When she approached, he gave a goofy grin and offered a thumbs up. "They agreed, we're down for it." He said, and headed off for a quick shower of his own.

After he'd left for the locker room, Barbara took a long look at the team. They were patient, but seemed almost nervous, especially the tiny Indian girl they called Daeva. Barbara dismissed it as new team jitters, and spoke to put them at ease.

"Tomorrow and the next day, I'll be watching you all during your regular training. After that, a few more members of my team will arrive to join me. Please don't do anything different, we're not coming here to grade you, it's just a matter of understanding your abilities better." She said, taking a seat on one of the sofas.

"Who else is coming?" Godiva asked, acting as nonchalant as possible.

"Nightwing for sure, this was all his idea. Superboy will probably be here too. Maybe others, depending on their availability. Getting a chance to really meet all of you will help both teams out in the long run." Barbara said, trying to keep them at ease, but not necessarily doing so well. They still looked nervous.

"Just remember, it's important to not change a single thing about what you do. If you push yourselves harder just because we're here, it won't do anyone any favors. We stand as good a chance of learning from you, as you do from us." She continued, which seemed to help. It also wasn't a lie. The rotating 'den mother' on the team had done wonders, giving them a lot of different perspectives and opportunities. This would be especially good for Superboy, who didn't have many people who could go toe to toe with him. If Deke had been completely honest in his evaluation of them, Koa and Godiva would give Superboy a good workout.

The team relaxed to varying degrees. Godiva still seemed unimpressed, which was probably just a defense mechanism. Fractal was difficult to read at any given moment, but he wasn't obviously distressed. Daeva looked like she'd just been given the best possible news for a horrible scenario, seeming much more relieved, and Koa was still just happy.

They chatted for a while about simple things, mostly Barbara getting asked questions about Batman and the work in Gotham. She was happy to share, though she kept some of the real horror stories to herself. They'd need to know eventually, but for now, their newness probably wouldn't permit them to really process it.


	6. Chapter 6 (Lemon Drops)

July 15th  
Destin, Florida  
1830 CST

Deke and Barbara got seated in the restaurant, a microbrewery and steakhouse not that far from the base. While they waited on their server, Deke sat his menu down and just took a moment to devour his beloved with his eyes. It didn't matter how she was dressed, he found her positively breathtaking.

She noticed him looking at her. Sure, his eyes wandered but he wasn't just looking down her shirt. He took the time to really observe, and it brought some color to her cheeks. "You okay there?" She asked flirtatiously, tipping her glasses down at him.

"Maybe," He said with a wink. "Probably not though."

She just smiled at her boy and ran her toes up his leg under the booth. She'd set very specific goals for coming in a day early. Spend some time with him, meet his team, go swimming, and spend the night not sleeping at all. When she saw color flush in his cheeks, she was pleased to see that she'd meet all her goals.

"So, what's good here?" She asked, still running her toes up and down his leg and giving him a mischievous look.

"Uhm, the uh, the Mahi Mahi is uh…" he tried to say. Barbara kept a giggle down at making her boy derpy, it had become something of a game to her. She slipped off her sandals and teased much higher, and the reaction was worth it. "And the steaks are, uhm holy damn!"

"So the steaks are good?" Barbara asked, like nothing at all was wrong. "I could go for a good steak." This double entendre she just left hanging in the air. She delighted in expressing her desires, being able to let her naughty side out on occasion. She left her sexuality behind when she put on the costume, so enjoying it was rare, but always fun.

"You tryin' to kill me?" Deke asked, his drawl slipping out a bit more. "Cause this is how you kill me. I will keel over dead, right here, and the coroner's report is gonna say this poor bastard had no blood in his brain."

That did earn a giggle. "I'll behave for now." She said, bringing her foot back down to his, though she maintained contact. They spent some time searching through the menus, mostly to let Deke cool off a bit.

Their server arrived a bit later and took their drink orders, and by the time he'd returned, they were ready to order their dinner. Barbara chose the naked Mahi Mahi, and Deke had gone with the Ribeye. As their waited for their food, Barbara kept toying with her boy, sweetly this time, just enjoying making contact with him.

The chattered idly while they waited on their food, and when their dinner arrived, their focus moved to their plates. Barbara's Mahi Mahi was excellent, obviously fresh caught, and Deke seemed more in love with his steak than he was with her. She'd have to correct that later.

When he'd excused himself to the restroom partway through the meal, her suspicion grew. Something about his attitude and body language was off. He wasn't nervous so she didn't think he was going to propose, and while they'd moved fast through their relationship, she was quite certain that wasn't even a consideration at this point. He was up to something though, she knew it.

Barbara played along, though her eyes were taking in everything. The dim lighting in the room suited the rich woods and black leather booths. The copper piping of the microbrewery shot through the room to contrast it but keep the feeling warm. Hundreds of bras were stapled to the ceiling over the bar, but Deke knew better than to try to talk her into 'donating' hers.

Their server hadn't shown much since Deke had wandered away, just a quick refill and off again, but he'd spared her another glance that time. He wasn't just checking her out either, more noticing her for more than just another customer. That furthered the investigation.

It was a little over two months before her birthday, and they'd agreed to spend that together in Gotham, circumstances allowing, so she wasn't getting a song and a piece of cake. Once their plates were empty, Deke kept glancing at the server, even though their drinks were both full enough. The server was definitely in on it. It was time to play mind games with a psychic.

Barbara slipped her foot up his calf again, waiting until Deke was taking a sip of his drink. This startled him enough to break his concentration. She apologized profusely, leaning forward to check on him, purposefully pressing her breasts together with her upper arms as she did so. "I'm sorry, it was an accident." She cooed. "Were you that impatient for the check?"

Deke coughed, clearing his sinuses of soda. When he looked up at her though, he just nodded. He'd tipped himself off on purpose. Just watching her mind at work was enthralling, seeing the connections form and the paths open up as she worked her way through a mental problem. It was only fair though. She liked watching him go all derpy, he liked watching her puzzle out a solution. He couldn't do anything to get her worked up the way she'd done to him, but he could at least get her this way.

Her attempt to break his concentration though, he hadn't expected that, and his reaction was genuine. His nose burned from the soda he'd accidentally choked on when she'd tickled his leg. Barbara narrowed her eyes at him though, and had a cynical smirk on her face. "You almost had me there." She said.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." Deke replied with what he hoped was smooth reticence.

"You had me going, Cowboy. I'll give you that." Barbara said, patting his hands. She was about to say something else, when their server walked by, and sat a plate in front of her, and dammit, he _had_ gotten her. It was a piece of chocolate cake, but it was covered in purple and yellow rose petals. There was a small gray card, folded lengthwise, on the plate as well. In careful script was her name.

Speechless, she opened the card. It simply said 'Loving you was the sweetest decision I ever made, and missing you was a constant thorn.' Immediately, she felt her cheeks flush hot as she sat the small card down carefully. She took his hands, kissed both of his palms, and held them to her face.

"Damnit Deke, I love you." Barbara said. She had nothing else she could say to that; just a simple, profound moment and an honest expression of love. "Did you plan this?" She asked, gently moving away the flower petals so she could take a small bite of cake, willfully shutting herself up because she wasn't sure what else to say.

Her boy nodded bashfully. "Yeah, I called ahead while you were in the shower. The rest of the team was in on it too." He said to her, putting a hand on one of hers. She fed him a bite of the cake and showed him the tip of her tongue. He felt proud of himself, not only for managing to slip one past her, but for leaving her looking like how she left him feeling. "I didn't embarrass you, did I?" He asked as well, worried he might have put her a bit on the spot. A few people at nearby tables had noticed but hadn't said anything.

"No, you didn't embarrass me." She said, slipping a thumb under her glasses and absently wiping. She refused to admit she had gotten the least bit misty about it. "I just don't know what to say."

"You said all you had to." Deke replied gently. He picked up the fork and offered her a bite from it. She accepted it delicately and just looked at her boy, this time in a new light. He was affectionate with her. He was passionate in private. Romantic was new though. Barbara appreciated it.

"No, there's something else. I want to ask you something." Barbara said quietly, and was she actually being shy? Deke didn't know how to process this, so he just shut his mouth and let her speak. "If I asked you to do anything at all, would you do it?"

"Yeah, I would." Deke said in a sober tone, wondering where she was going.

"Ok, good, I just want to know we're on equal footing." Barbara said, and rubbed at her eye again. Damn him for that, but he hadn't said a word about it. She'd cried in front of him before, out of sheer frustration and exhaustion, once. This, this was most certainly not that.

"You've had my heart a while Babs." Deke said, standing up. He offered her his hand, and when she stood up, he left some cash on the table. "Let's get out of here, shall we?"

Barbara was about to protest, but her boy just smiled at her. "I paid up earlier, we're good." With that, the two friends and lovers exited the restaurant, hand in hand. They'd walked here from the team's base, and began the stroll back, the cool ocean breeze contrasting with the bright oranges and purples of the coastal sunset.

They moved in contented silence, crossing the main highway before cutting onto side roads. Once the sun had dipped below the horizon, rain began to fall, fat warm droplets that quickly drenched the couple. Barbara smiled and squealed in surprise, her boy laughing along with her.

They ran the rest of the way, the summer rain drenching them head to toe. She was hell to keep pace with though, the girl ran like a deer. All Deke could do was just soldier on and keep moving, though the view from the back wasn't exactly hard on the eyes.

When they finally slipped in the side door of the empty warehouse turned secret hideout, the two lovers stood there for a moment, both giggling. Her hair was dripping, little droplets flowing around her face, split wide in an openmouthed smile. Deke couldn't resist the moment, and pushed her against the wall. She made an interested noise as she met his lips, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Deke put his hands on her hips, his fingertips lightly pressing into her bottom as he pulled her closer to himself. Barbara pushed into it, and turned, rotating his back against the wall by the doorway. She pulled away from kissing him to run her hands through his soaking wet hair, still smiling brightly.

Deke slid his hands down, and squeezed as he pulled up and towards him. Reading his cue, Barbara followed the motion, allowing herself to be picked up. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her into his small bedroom, still alternating between kissing and giggling with him.

Once through the threshold, Deke kicked the door closed and laid her on the bed. Barbara put her arms behind her and half sat, half leaned, looking at him. Her white shirt was soaked, and the black bra she wore was plainly visible. Seeing him looking, she kicked off her sandals and began undoing buttons with a hungry look on her face.

Deke ditched his own sandals and just yanked his wet shirt off, shaking his hair out afterwards. He put a knee on the bed, and leaned towards his lover, pulling her white shirt off and tossing it in the pile with his. Not content with the arrangement, Barbara leaned into him and up until they were both kneeling before each other on the bed.

Her hands went to his shorts, and he followed suit, pulling her skirt down. There was the inevitable fumbling around trying to actually ditch these items, but the moment leading up to it probably looked really cool.

Left in nothing but their underwear, the lovers kissed, calmer now, slower. Barbara straddled him, gently rocking her hips as his hands slid up and down her sides, pausing occasionally on her hips. Their kisses were patient but deep, the excitement of being caught in the rain giving way to the weight of their whole day.

Barbara felt Deke's hands at her back, unclasping her bra. When it was loose, she spilled free from it, and while it had done very flattering things to her breasts, the freedom of nudity was much more comforting. The rain and cool air mixed with her arousal, her nipples already stiff peaks. Deke followed by hooking his thumbs into the waistband of her panties, sliding them off her bottom. They took their time this time, not fumbling around, undressing each other slowly, and relishing the intimacy of baring their lover.

They kissed again, her deep red lips pressed against his, as his hands caressed her back, the soft skin and taut muscle a dichotomy Deke couldn't stop being in awe of. Barbara placed her hands against his chest and leaned into him, using her lips to brush against his, the sensation delicate and so very much _her_ , in these private moments.

Deke broke away from the spell her lips were casting on him, and leaned in to kiss her earlobe. "You wanna?" He asked her as his hands worked down her arms, holding her gently at the wrists. She turned her hands into it, and guided them up in the air like a belly dancer might, before bringing them down between them in the same liquid motion, clasping them tight.

She knew what he was offering, there was no mistake. "You know I do." She purred back at him, nuzzling into his neck as they braced each other. They had only made love while fully linked twice; their first time and once more after a particularly nasty argument. While it had so far guaranteed one simultaneous orgasm, that climax was like getting hit by a bullet train, the emotional and physical bleeding into one another. The intensity was far too much to just casually engage in, so it was something they saved for special occasions, and this one certainly qualified.

The process was easier this time because they were slowly tuning into one another while they'd kissed. Barbara felt that physical tingle, followed by the beckoning sensation at her thoughts. The stars came next and then their thoughts coalesced into a singularity. To anyone watching, it looked like they were just holding hands and pressing their foreheads together, breathing in of one another, but in their thoughts, they were unifying into a single luminous being.

The crash happened, much more powerfully this time. "I give myself to you." Barbara had said through image and emotion. "I belong to you." He'd replied in like. Breath and heartbeat moved in tandem as she straddled him, lowering herself down. Their eyes were locked onto one another as she took him fully, their pupils dilated wide in arousal.

Deke supported her weight, beginning to rock beneath her, the motion slow. He loved the feeling of her body gripping his, and wanted to enjoy it as long as he possibly could. Barbara kissed his neck, nipping gently. She loved the sensation of him moving within her, barely moving an inch back and forth, dragging against her inner walls with that hellishly wonderful friction.

Together, they fanned their flame brighter. Barbara began moving on her own, and Deke followed with her, sliding more of himself in and out of her. Usually quite vocal, she was instead making small noises as she breathed, her breath catching in her throat as she changed her angles slightly, aiming to find that perfect spot. Deke replied in their perfect synchronicity, cradling the back of her head in one hand while he kissed along her neck and shoulders.

Her moans grew louder as their pace began to pick up, their motions matching the pace of the rest of their bodies. She nipped at his shoulders, trying to involve as much of her body as she possibly could, that _moment_ teasing them with its distance from them. Deke put one hand against her rather firm bottom, squeezing, trying to experience as much of her as possible.

Barbara's breasts were pressed against his chest, the occasional dragging pull against her nipples even more of that sweet torture. Her nerves were beginning to sing along with his as she sought to drive herself onto him, the contact of his hips with hers like striking a match, and the feeling of his breath on her neck causing goosebumps to spread across her skin.

Sweat dripped from his body as he rode with her. She'd leaned back, still united with him, until her shoulders were on the bed. Lightning flashed outside the window, much as it was doing so in the room they were in. Every tiny hair on her body stood up, every inch of skin tingling as he drove into her, her body rocking along with him. They were like the ocean outside, crashing to shore, drawing away, and crashing again.

Deke held to her hips with one hand, and ran the other up Barbara's taut stomach, brushing her breast as he passed. He slipped that hand under her, and pulled her up and back into him. She undulated against him once back upright. Sweat was forming on her too, as they pushed their bodies towards that single instant.

Deke held to his lover as she let her body guide them, his hands exploring every inch of her. As the stars in their minds grew brighter, Barbara gripped him at his back and began to rock harder. Her voice was raised to the night sky, threatening to shame the thunder for daring to roll while a Goddess and her God made love.

Sensing her drawing close, Deke lifted up to his knees and began driving into her with real intent. She wanted her oblivion and he would give it to her. Her moans grew louder as her physical control began leaving her, her nails again digging into his shoulders without her permission. That moment was imminent, her body reflexively alternating gripping his shaft and relaxing before doing it again.

Into her ear, he spoke, his voice low but powerful. "I love you." He said, and she had no doubt of it.

"I love you too." She was able to say before their orgasm overtook them. Her voice went from a whine to a shriek, her legs wrapped tight around his waist, and her body locked as the first wave slammed into her, powerfully. They were bare, stripped to the soul in the moment, getting lost in the physical and emotional sensations, twisting and whirling and colliding. Deke's mind went perfectly blank as they shared their orgasm, his body going almost numb as he fired into her.

Barbara's body was rocked by pulses, timed with their heartbeats, a cascade of aftershocks. She was raking into his back as she pressed her head against his shoulder, trying to ride out the extremely intense reaction which had fully claimed her. Deke was crushing his sheets with the hand he was supporting himself with, his grip white-knuckled. Every pulse for her echoed within him. Each echo within him stirred her further, and the cycle kept up, leaving them positively devastated. She'd bitten down on his shoulder, trying and failing to stifle her screams, unable to let go when she'd wanted to.

After a very indeterminate period of time, Barbara pulled him down on top of her, her legs still locked around his waist, refusing to allow that emptiness to happen at his withdrawal. Deke held onto her, their sweat slick bodies pressed tightly together.

Eventually, she relaxed her legs, hating to feel so empty after being so full of him. Deke felt the same way. He'd been engulfed by her, and didn't want to let go. Barbara curled into him, and he wrapped her up in his arms, holding her close. The storm outside had grown stronger, but for them, in that moment, there was only a quiet stillness.


	7. Chapter 7

July 16th  
Destin, Florida  
0000 CST

As much as both Deke and Barbara wanted to lay there and go to sleep, their bodies weren't going to let them. She rose first, and on very wobbly legs, wandered over to his dresser to steal another of his tee shirts. She'd actually sworn she would never be this kind of girlfriend, but they were just too damn comfortable. She reasoned that so long as she didn't leave more than one change of clothes with him, she'd still be within her moral high ground.

Dehydrated, and sweat soaked, Barbara opened the door to his room and stumbled down the hallway towards the locker room. Outside, she could hear the thunder rolling in the distance, the storm passing as abruptly as it had started. The metaphor was lovely, she thought, as she managed to get into a toilet stall.

Once finished and cleaned, she went to wash her hands, taking a moment to look at herself in the mirror while she did. Her skin was still flushed, her hair limp from rain and sweat, and her makeup a hot mess, but she felt quite sexy anyway. She also felt quite sore, and just a little dizzy. Reasoning that she was probably dehydrated, she wandered out into the small base, still so empty and quiet, and pulled some water bottles out of the refrigerator.

On her way back, Barbara noticed her boy, now in boxer briefs, wandering back into his bedroom, a wad of fabric under his arms. A bit puzzled, she followed him in, and noticed he was carrying fresh sheets for his bed. One look at the original sheets, originally royal blue and now almost navy from their sweat and the rainwater, explained that.

"Hey beautiful." Deke said over his shoulder, his voice loving but tired. "I'll be done in a minute." His shoulder blades were covered in scratches, several of them quite deep. Another pang of annoyance cropped up in Barbara's mind, but she pushed it away. He'd explained that it didn't bother him, but she wondered sometimes if he wasn't just saying that because he loved her (or because she was sleeping with him, either were just as valid).

"Take your time," Barbara said languidly, leaning against the wall. She held one of the water bottles to her neck and chest, cooling herself off. Deke turned to properly look at her and was quickly taken by the sight. She looked like she belonged on a vintage magazine cover in that pose.

Not interested in doing things the hard way, Deke used his powers to flip the mattress and redress the bed, making quick work of it. Barbara snickered at her boy as he gestured like an orchestra conductor, but she couldn't deny he'd gotten it done in no time. When he finally turned to face her though, her jaw dropped.

She put a hand on his shoulder and all but shoved him onto the bed. "I'll need a few more minutes, but okay." He said, trying to be cool, but the distress on her face was evident, so he backed off. She was examining his collar area, near his neck, just out of his peripheral vision.

"Shush you." She said, and there was almost fury rolling off of her. When she sat back up, she was frowning and looked extremely unhappy. "I'm sorry." She said quietly.

"For what?" Deke asked, genuinely not sure what in the hell she was talking about. He'd felt her nip at his neck a few times early on in the act, but she hadn't bitten hard. Was she this upset about leaving a little hickey? He honestly didn't mind her being a little territorial, it made him feel wanted. Deke was sure he'd told her that before.

Barbara reached beside the bed and opened her small overnight bag, pulling out a compact. She flipped the mirror open and handed it to him. Deke maneuvered the small mirror around until he saw what she was going on about. She had bitten the absolute hell out of him, a ring of teeth marks with a few spots of blood.

"You're still okay with me getting bitey and scratchy?" She asked, running her finger along the marks she'd left on him. "I don't mean to."

"Yep." Deke said, setting her compact aside and wrapping her arms around her, pulling her down to the freshly made bed. "You cut loose in the moment and I'm okay with that."

They laid there, holding one another for a while, exhausted from their earlier activities. Barbara nuzzled into him, which was a pretty clear indicator she was ready to go to sleep. It was moments like this that served to remind him why he'd fallen in love with her. He was almost out with her, until he heard a very faint, and very muffled noise from the other side of the warehouse. Deke pushed his telepathic senses out, and felt his teammates in close proximity.

[Hey, we're here.] Deke communicated with Koa. He and the gigantic Hawaiian had gotten tight, quickly, so he was the easiest to push the thought towards. [You all have fun doing the go-karts and stuff?]

[Yeah, until the storm come, but we found an all-night deli. We brought you two some samwiches.] Koa replied.

"You hungry?" Deke said quietly, in case Barbara was asleep.

She just nuzzled deeper into him, which gave him his answer. [Mahalo, but we're crashing.]

[Shoots den brah.] Koa replied. He relayed the information to the team, who set about their own preparations for bed. Deke stayed awake for a while longer, listening to the rain outside the window, just feeling his love's heartbeat against his body. Barbara started snoring quietly after a few more moments, so he made a flicking gesture with two fingers, pulling the blanket up over the two of them.

As he drifted off, Deke considered his life, and how he'd gotten to this moment. He was laying in bed with a positively beautiful woman, who was not only happy to be with him, but also loved him. He'd actually gone toe to toe with the forces of a major villain, and come out okay. He was part of a team. Koa was right, this was ohana.

"I love you." He whispered to her, and passed out contentedly.

* * *

The next morning, Barbara's alarm on her phone had done a stellar job of waking both of them up. Deke had to stop himself from telekinetically crushing the device for the annoyance it was kicking up. He shook his head clear as he rose up, and noticed he was alone in the bed.

Barbara was already changing clothes, bent over at the foot of the bed, pulling on black compression style shorts. The view was nice for a moment, but she was in efficiency mode. "Get dressed sleepyhead." She said, turning around and smiling sweetly at her boy. Always, she looked so damn beautiful. No makeup, sunglases, hair in a quick ponytail, and still she could stop his heart.

She tossed him a pair of shorts and went back to pulling clothes on, a sports bra and the matching top to her shorts. These were exactly like the ones she wore under her costume, though she was pulling on a pair of sneakers instead of getting into her uniform.

Deke slipped out of bed, excused himself groggily to the bathroom, and took care of morning business. He came back out of the locker room in his own sneakers and the shorts she'd tossed him, wondering if she was planning on going for a run. When he got into the common area, he saw her chatting with Koa and Lady G, the two of them looking similarly prepped. (Okay, so Koa always looked prepped, he seemed allergic to shoes and shirts.)

"Took you long enough." Godiva snarked as she laced her shoes. "Think you can keep up without flying?"

Deke just shook his head. A few months ago, there was no way in hell he'd be able to pace anyone who actually enjoyed running. Now, he still didn't _enjoy_ running, but he could do it. "Probably." He said simply, leaving it at that.

The four of them left the warehouse, and headed off down the beach. The sun still wasn't perfectly risen, but there were others out already, many doing the same thing the teenagers were, while others were standing in the surf with small fishing poles, probably looking to catch some baitfish.

They ran for quite a while, Godiva taking the last position. The joy emanating from her told Deke she was happy taking in the view. He was a nineteen year old male, he should have been the biggest pervert of the team, but Lady G was proving him wrong. Barbara kept center, letting Koa, the slowest of the runners, set the pace. If he'd set the duration, however, the rest of them likely would have died. The man seemed incapable of stopping if he didn't want to.

Deke just ran, distancing his mind from his body. He was still extremely tired from last night's activities; the act of physical love while entangled mind and body with Barbara always left him drained. That she was already awake and ready to go when her alarm had gone off made him wonder if maybe he was losing his touch or something.

"Turn." Koa said after his watch had beeped. As a whole, they made a wide arc and headed back once they'd hit the two mile mark. "We getting breakfast afterward, right?" He asked, not even sounding remotely winded. That he'd grown up running around on sand his whole life, that wasn't surprising.

"I am." Godiva said, making it sound like she didn't care what anyone else had to say about it. She had more to say though, and came up with the rest of the group, tapping Barbara on the shoulder and motioning her to fall back a few feet.

Once Deke and Koa had pulled ahead, the bombshell blonde spoke. "So look, I'm seriously sorry about messing with him. He never said he was seeing you, just that he was seeing someone."

Barbara waved it off. "He behaved, that's what matters." She said, and that was it. How her brain could be so rational and non-territorial, but her sex drive couldn't be, made no sense to her. She could even understand why he'd been so hesitant to mention who he was seeing. Information like that could be dangerous in the wrong hands. She didn't like the idea of him being leveraged to hurt her, or even worse, the other way around.

"You know, he really does love you." Godiva said after a hundred more yards. She pondered her next words, summoning the courage to say anything else at all. Batgirl was the real deal, no joke. She didn't need superpowers to ruin someone's day. "Tell me you're not just using him or something."

This surprised Barbara. She frowned for a moment, not pleased with the nerve of the girl to even think such a thing. She was about to give a rather tart answer, but realized she would say the same thing to a woman who Dick had such strong feelings for. Not that he stuck around long enough for it to happen, the boy was too much like Bruce for his own good sometimes.

"No, I'm not using him. I love him too." Barbara said, feeling warm at the thought.

"Cool." Godiva said. "This conversation fails the Bechdel test, doesn't it?"

Barbara snickered. "Yeah, maybe a little."

They finished out their quick two mile run back at the base. Deke and Koa had offered to go pick up breakfast, and since the morning was so beautiful, they'd walked to get it. Well, that, and the vehicles that Captain Atom said the team was supposed to be getting, hadn't arrived yet.

On their way to the small beachside diner, Koa prodded his teammate. "Hey Brah, you and Beegee serious?" He asked, using shorthand for her name in the public setting.

Deke looked at his brother from another mother. "Yeah, I told her I loved her last night. She took it a lot better than I thought she would." He said with a goofy grin.

"That's awesome! I think you two fit each other." Koa said, elbowing Deke. Koa wasn't the smartest person on the team, but he played a lot dumber than he was. He was also extremely observant. "You treat her right, yeah?"

"Well hell yeah I do man." Deke drawled, making a face at Koa. "What kinda question is that anyways?"

"Just gotta make sure. You've been intimate with her. Emotionally, and physically." Koa stated, gesturing towards his chest like he was illustrating love. "You aren't two people anymore, that's why I call her ohana, because you my brah so she a part of that now. You're intertwined."

"Yeah, that's pretty much a guarantee at certain moments." Deke said as they crossed the street. Even at this early hour, the road was busy, so they'd been forced to wait for a few to cross.

"No, not what I mean, get your head outta the gutter." Koa rebutted. "Mana is balance, Lua is balance, and love is balance. Without balance, you fall." He continued, running his hands through his mop of hair, tying it off into a loose bun.

The two men walked into the small diner and placed an order big enough to feed everyone at the base, arguing with each other for several minutes as to what everyone would want, and if they should get a vegetarian plate just in case.


	8. Chapter 8

July 16th  
Destin, Florida  
0700 GST

Deke and Koa entered the warehouse, arms loaded with takeout containers. Without paying a single bit of attention, the two men rushed towards the kitchen island to set breakfast down. Daeva and Fractal moved to help them, and they made quick work of putting the food out.

"Why did you get eight orders? There's only six people here now." Daeva asked, peeking under the lids of the Styrofoam containers. She was already dressed in her costume, a sheer sari style dress in rich blues and purples over a black short sleeved and legged body stocking.

"Cause we hungry sistah. Maybe you would be too if you went running with us." Koa said with a wink.

"Someone had to sacrifice their health and well-being to make sure our home was in order for our guests. I decided to take that hit for you Liho." Daeva said in an admonishing tone, though she patted him on the arm in a caring gesture.

Deke couldn't argue that. He also couldn't argue the fact that he smelled like the southbound end of a northbound cow. Excusing himself, he headed towards his bedroom to gather his uniform. Inside, Barbara was sitting on the bed in one of his tee shirts, knees drawn up to her chest, and looking at her phone intently, while her wet hair dripped down her back.

"Hey Cowboy," She said with a bright smile. She plugged in her drying brush and began working the moisture out of her hair.

"Howdy beautiful." Deke replied, looking for clothes to wear after his shower. "Breakfast is in the kitchen."

While it was easy consider speedsters being the only people with ramped metabolism, it was also a bad idea to assume they were the only ones. Barbara had been engaged in athletics for fourteen of her eighteen years of life, which meant she was more than capable of an epic appetite. Waking up from a night spent making love for several hours, followed by a run, had left her ready to eat an entire house. Her body language confirmed this, as her bright blue eyes lit up even more.

Hastily, she pulled some shorts and one of her own tee shirts on, and kissed her boy. Deke followed her out of the room, but turned left when she turned right, heading to the showers.

He bathed quickly, knowing he'd need to move his ass if he wanted to eat, annoyed they didn't get a ninth order. It was his own fault though, he'd blown most of his money on last night's dinner and surprise dessert. It had been worth it though, seeing her face. If it meant no breakfast, he'd survive.

Deke was last out to the living area, where the rest of his team and his girlfriend were already eating and carrying on. With a shrug, he joined them, grabbing the last box and noticing it wasn't the vegetarian order. Fractal had claimed that one, not noticing it until he'd eaten almost a quarter of it, and felt obligated to commit.

After breakfast, the team got into their gear and hit the Zeta tube, heading to Eastern California. An abandoned Drive-In several miles outside of Barstow served as cover for a wide open training field that the League used on occasion. True to her word, Batgirl kept well out of their way, just watching them. Her job was to observe and report, and she was certain Nightwing was going to scrutinize her opinions on Mustang.

They began as they always did, Koa leading them in Ha'a, the warrior's challenge of many Polynesian peoples. They still weren't on the exact same page with it yet, having only begun practicing it a few weeks ago, but it was plain they were committed to learning. Batgirl noted this as an effort in team building. At first glance, it was entertaining to see a fussy German, a Cowboy, a tiny Indian woman, and a bombshell blonde performing the ritual, but she understood the cultural impact, and seeing Daeva and Godiva get so very _into_ it, the former getting positively hostile, was also impressive as well.

Then, they moved on. It was Godiva's turn to lead training that day, and she'd chosen to have the team filling sandbags, until they each had a huge pile of them, and then had them playing a highly complicated version of toss across. Because Captain Atom had put them together for major disaster relief, the exercise made perfect sense. Mustang, so uncoordinated, didn't do so well, but she could see where he was beginning to show some improvement. For Godiva and Koa, this activity was a milk run, whereas Daeva, who had no augmented strength, truly suffered. To make up for it, she'd taken the time during a water break, to gather what sparse clouds floated through the air, to blot out some of the unforgiving Mojave sun.

Barbara noted that she just chose to do this, thinking in a team oriented manner. Fractal had some trouble as well, but he just soldiered on with it, signaling his team as necessary, showing good leadership traits. The exercise took half the day, and after a quick lunch under shade, they went at it again, this time employing all of their powers, and setting time limits for themselves.

Barbara snapped some photos and video of them training together, and compiled them with her report to Nightwing. On her tablet, she wrote out her opinions on day one, and fired the message off, CCing Captain Atom and Batman. The report wasn't scathing, but she was concerned taking them on a covert mission might make things more difficult than they needed to be. Her reply, which came fairly quickly, was instructions on what to look for on the second day, and told her she would be joined by Nightwing, Wondergirl, and Miss Martian on day three. Superboy was being left behind at Mount Justice, which Barbara imagined was more leadership training for him.

Following their exercise, the team concluded with another repetition of the Ha'a, this time led by Mustang, while being coached by Koa. Because of the difference of time zones, it was only two in the afternoon when they finished, which seemed to be Fractal's plan for choosing this location the whole time, getting their training done just as the summer day was reaching its hottest.

"How'd we do?" Mustang asked Batgirl, walking up to her with a few water bottles in hand. He offered her one, which she took a good drink from before answering. She'd refused to break until they had, so she was quite thirsty, even wearing a very well insulated uniform. The rest of the team followed behind him.

"Remains to be seen." She said cryptically. "I think Nightwing might have some things he'll want to have you do. Your teamwork is already excellent though, you should all be proud."

This seemed to please the team, Koa and Mustang high fiving while Daeva beaming happily. Fractal checked his watch and suggested they head back to their base. When they began walking away, he remained behind.

"May I read your report please?" He asked Batgirl. "We can't get better until we know where we need focus."

Batgirl pondered this a moment. She'd been honest about everyone, and while that included their strengths, it also included some clinical insight into their weaknesses. She wasn't on the clock to protect their feelings. On the other hand, she didn't want to hurt Deke's feelings at all, but she also couldn't be seen to play favorites. She'd already planned on giving Fractal some of the information anyway though, so she arrived on a compromise. "I can't give you the full report, it has security encoding, but I'll recompile everything and get it to you. Sound fair?"

This seemed to satisfy the team leader. "That would be wonderful, thank you." He said politely, walking towards the Zeta tube. Once it had recognized him, only Mustang and Batgirl remained in the abandoned drive in theater. He took his hat off and scratched his head, looking like he belonged on the cover to a country music album.

She finally put a smile on, and walked over to her boy. He smiled back at her bashfully, and met her halfway. "Shall we?" Barbara asked, gesturing towards the Zeta tube.

Deke shook his head and showed her his phone. There was a text message which read "Route is clear, towers and military have been alerted. Eglin AFB will give you your ground speed."

"Cap'n Atom says I have to fly home whenever we train anywhere outside of Destin." Deke said. "Daeva flies using winds, it would take her hours to get home, so she gets a pass. I'm not so lucky."

"So, what's your top speed?" she asked. She'd never actually pushed him on flight speed because he so rarely flew. His maneuverability was so poor he mostly just levitated himself when he needed a better vantage point.

"I broke Mach 2 last time." He said with pride. Barbara found it sexy, but kept that thought to herself. Twice supersonic was nothing to sneeze at either. Superman was obviously much faster, but Deke could clear the distance between California and Florida in about an hour and short change. "I'll see you when I get back, okay?"

Barbara gave him a quick kiss. "Be careful, I love you." She said to him, running her fingers down his cheek. He blushed at her touch and took her hand, giving it a light squeeze.

"Love you too Darlin." He said, and watched her Zeta away. Once she was gone, he took his phone back out and called up the navigation app he'd been given to use. Because he couldn't steer himself worth a damn, he had to orient himself on the ground for any real long distance flight.

Deke inputted the information, let the app calculate his position and his location, and finally provide him a direction. Squaring off and lining his shoulders up, Deke got himself facing the correct direction, put his phone away, and launched himself into the air.

He soared up for a few thousand feet, the altimeter in the smartwatch he'd been given letting him know he was clear of commercial airspace. He checked his orientation on the small screen one more time, planed his body out, and just went for it, effectively impelling himself forward. There was a physical sensation which accompanied the act of flight, a contraction and dilation effect over his whole body which, until recently, he didn't have a way to accurately describe.

There was a heavy effort to this activity too, as he basically had to keep pushing himself to remain aloft, the flying brick metaphor feeling all too perfectly accurate. Once he reached a sufficient speed, he had to generate and hold a field of force around his body to protect himself from the sonic booms he generated. He'd been toying with the shape of it, borrowing design elements from different aircraft, trying to find the right one. His research had led him to try the F4 Phantom as inspiration first, as it was renowned to handle similarly to how he did in the air, but that hadn't done it. So far, the SR-71 Blackbird was his go to, but he still felt like he could do better.

Up in the air, the Earth rolling by beneath him, there was a certain peace. He couldn't afford to get deep into thought as travel like this required extreme focus, but the calming quiet beauty of the world below still brought his mind into certain clarity. He made a mental note to bring a GoPro camera with him the next time, to capture this, as Texas just rolled on past below him, with Louisiana on the horizon.

Finally, Deke brought himself to a dead stop, fifty thousand feet above Destin Florida, his smartwatch alerting him to his arrival. Immediately, he went into freefall as his effort to remain aloft was suddenly terminated. Using his powers to keep his hat on his head, he just dropped, also using his powers to slow the reaction of oxygen in his body. He'd nearly passed out the first time he'd tried this, so he'd also had to do research into terminal velocity and other safety concerns for HALO jumping.

The coast from up here was beautiful, just white sands, emerald water, and tiny little shapes which made up the roads, houses, and buildings of the city. Deke could see the bay and harbor, the water darker, leaking out into the Gulf of Mexico. He took the time to check his watch, and saw that it was almost five thirty in the evening. The sun was still well above the horizon though, and plenty of people were coming into view against the beaches, at first tiny specks before resolving themselves into more proper shapes.

He had to wait until he was almost on the ground before stopping his momentum, and while terrifying, it was his favorite part of this whole ordeal, the ground rushing up to meet him at extreme speed. Finally satisfied, he used his powers to arrest his momentum, the energy bleeding off around him. The last fifteen feet or so saw him bringing himself down relatively slowly before softly putting his feet to the ground, a good mile from the base.

Deke took his hat and coat off, rolled them up under his arm, and just started walking, getting onto the sidewalk. He took the time to call the control tower at the Air Force base, gave his identification code, and then just stopped flat as they gave him his reported speed, compiled from Edwards, Holloman, Lackland, and Barksdale.

Sixteen hundred knots, almost bang on the money. A quick check on the conversion app on his phone told him Mach 2.4. He couldn't resist jumping in the air with a cheer, which led several other pedestrians to look at him funny. He ignored them and picked up his pace, heading back to his temporary home, a huge grin on his face.

Once he arrived, he noticed something else new. When he entered through the gate in the fence, he saw several vehicles parked there. Five motorcycles, an old chopped down blue Ford truck, a new Fiat, a Chevy Equinox, and, no, it couldn't be. A black soft top Camaro. Also, in the side garage, he saw what looked like several stacks of parts, and the body to a helicopter. "Some assembly required." He muttered, but Fractal could have that thing together within an hour.

Upon entering the base, his teammates began making a ruckus, most groaning, though Fractal seemed strangely self-satisfied. He immediately held his hand out, and the rest of the team began handing him twenties. One of which, he peeled off the stack and handed to Deke. "Only fair." He said with a grin.

"Were y'all betting on when I'd get here?" He asked while pocketing the money, not angry about it at all. Really, it was kind of funny, and twenty bucks was twenty bucks, he wasn't going to complain.

"Yes, and you could have stopped for a smoothie you know." Daeva said with a frown. She would have won if he'd taken another ten minutes. "Batgirl is in Godiva's room, working on some things if you're wondering."


	9. Chapter 9

July 16th  
Destin, Florida  
1800 CST

Deke was stretched out on his bed, working on a laptop, when he felt a hand brush against his back. Startled, he turned to look at his beloved, who was already in the process of getting out of her uniform. He almost knocked the laptop off his bed in surprise, but managed to catch it before it fell. The team each had one, but nobody had said it was their property, so he was treating the thing with extra care.

"We're apparently all going out for dinner." Barbara said, sitting on the side of the bed to pull her boots off. She took her time with it, trying to get a rise out of her boy.

He'd noticed too, closing the lid on the laptop and setting it under his bed. He rolled onto his side and just watched her undress, unclipping all of her gear and setting it into her bag in well-practiced patterns. "Okay then, sounds good." Deke said to her after a moment, still distracted.

Barbara dropped her cowl and cape, and stood up, giving her boy a look. "Could you help a girl out?" She said invitingly, gesturing to the fasteners on the sides of her uniform. She could reach them of course, but where was the fun in that?

Deke stood up with her and got close, pulling her to his body before working through the clips and buckles and zippers. She made a low, happy noise in her throat and relaxed into his touch, remembering the day she'd insisted on decking him out in his own costume for the first time. She'd been better behaved about the whole thing, but there was a power about it that she enjoyed, hoping one day, they'd have the time to do this for each other. She probably would try to get video for that one.

Once her actual armor was off, Deke went to lift her second skin. He'd slipped his fingers under the fabric and began pulling it up, the sensation of the back of his hands against her sides somewhere between tickling and arousing. Barbara was going to say something about it, something that might cause them to miss dinner, when the door opened.

"Hey, we're almost ready to… hello." A female voice said. Godiva was leaning against the doorway, with a pleased look on her face. "Oh, go ahead, don't mind me." She added with a gesture.

Barbara covered her breasts with her arm and turned around, giving Godiva a raised eyebrow. Silently, she was glad she still had the bottoms to her uniform on. She'd taken to wearing a G-string beneath the lower half of her second skin after Cassie had recommended it, and she didn't want teased about it. "Do you do this to everyone?" She asked.

"Not Mustang anymore, and Fractal always keeps his door locked. Everyone else is fair game." Godiva said, coming up out of the doorway and pulling the door to. She made a show of leaving it cracked and peeking through, until Barbara gave a glare. From behind the door, they could hear Godiva snickering.

Deke just went back to his work, undoing her bottoms, and hooking his thumbs into the waistband, rolling them down her legs. The material was stretchy like rubber but it could breathe extremely well, something Barbara was grateful for as he knelt down to guide her legs out, his hands cupping her calves. From his kneeling position on the floor, he looked up at her and gave a bashful, goofy grin. Barbara couldn't help but show her crush the tip of her tongue at that.

He put his hand against her hip and gently pushed against it. She followed the motion and flopped on the bed, making it easier for her boy to completely remove her pants. Again, she felt like saying something that would cause them to miss dinner, his touch doing all the wrong things to all the right places. That he acted like he was fortunate to do so might have had something to do with it. Barbara was no princess, not by any stretch, but occasionally getting to feel like one didn't hurt.

Barbara laid on his bed, all but nude, and let the cool air of his bedroom just wash over her. Her boy looked at her with a hungry gaze, but it looked as though a thought struck him. He grabbed a shirt and draped it artfully across her breasts, and then pulled his phone out. Barbara arched an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything, curious where this was going.

Deke brought up the camera, lined up a single shot, and clicked the capture button. Barbara sat up, pulling the shirt on, and then leaned over his shoulder once he'd sat down. Deke fiddled with the filters and other settings for several moments before feeling satisfied. "You're not planning on sending that to anyone are you?" Barbara asked. He'd taken care to catch her at an angle where her hair had broken up a lot of her facial features, but still, the principle of the matter and all.

"Yep." Deke said, and sent the picture to her. When her phone chimed, she opened the message, just looking at the boudoir picture he'd sent her, of herself. His hands were busy though, messing around on his phone for a moment, before he put his next to hers. On his screen, there was a picture of a model on an art photography magazine cover, and while the pose and clothing weren't a perfect match, it was very close.

"This," Deke said, shaking his phone a bit for emphasis. "This is what I see when I look at you. A work of art."

Barbara bit her lip as a flush of color flooded her cheeks. She leaned over and kissed her boy, taking him down to the bed with her, locking lips for several moments. "That was very kind of you to say." She said to him with a warm smile. "Thank you."

And again, he did it to her. It wasn't some 'damn girl you look fine' or other worthless catcall. It was kind, and thoughtful, and so endearingly sweet. He wasn't the only one to feel fortunate in the relationship. Barbara kissed him again and followed it up by nuzzling noses. "Ready for dinner?" She asked, forcing herself to bring the subject up. She wanted nothing more than to lay like this with him for a while, and it was obvious he felt the same way. Leaving his team hanging just wouldn't do though.

"Mostly." Deke said, trading his beat up old tee shirt for a newer one, this one a deep blue that matched his white check pattern board shorts well. Barbara reached for a skirt, which floated to her hand. She swatted at her boy with them with a giggle, and went to change her underwear.

"You mind leavin' those on?" He asked, a naughty look on his face. He didn't get like this often at all, so the effect was a bit surprising to Barbara. She just gave him a bedroom glance and pulled her skirt up over the scrap of black material posing as underwear, giving her bottom an unnecessary shimmy.

Once properly dressed, they met the rest of the team in the living area. "Where's the keys?" Deke asked, referencing the vehicles outside.

His team gave him a funny look. "Keys to what?" Fractal asked, puzzled at what the man was going on about.

"The cars and bikes outside." He said, pointing to the door which adjoined with their parking area. He looked at Barbara, and she just gave him a knowing smile before showing him the tip of her tongue. "Did you all just Zeta in and stay in?"

Daeva hemmed and hawed around the answer, as did Koa. Godiva just stuck her head out the door to look. "Dibs on the Camaro." She said.

"You don't have a driver's license." Daeva pointed out, also leaning her head out the door.

"I know, I'm just riding in the Camaro is all. Shotgun by the way." Godiva said, already walking towards the car.

"You wanna tell her, or should I?" Deke asked, as Barbara pulled out several sets of keys from her small clutch, handing a set to her boy.

"I'll handle it." She said with a wink. "Also, you need to thank somebody. These were all impound recoveries. You were going to get a truck until a mutual friend of ours spoke up and offered up the Camaro when he got his shiny new Ferarri."

Batman had made the decision that, since they didn't have access to transportation besides Zeta, it could make their work more difficult, so he'd worked out a deal with Gotham City PD to take a few impounded vehicles off their hands the day they were destined for auction. Barbara had been entrusted with the keys, but had waited to see when they'd be noticed.

Deke nodded at her as they walked out the door, flipping through the contacts on his phone until he got to an entry for Nathan Wilson. He'd chosen to obfuscate the contact info he had for everyone for obvious reasons, Barbara's entry only saying Novia, the Spanish word for Girlfriend.

He fired off a quick text, asking Nightwing when he'd be available to talk for a minute. Deke hated the idea of texting a thank you for something, probably the psychic in him. He pocketed his phone though, and headed towards the cars, and watched as Barbara dropped the news. Godiva held one hand out, palm up, and hovered her other hand in a fist over it. Barbara shrugged, followed suit, and handily defeated the blonde girl at Rochambeau.

When Deke got to the driver's seat, he heard Barbara explaining to Godiva that she "Has a tell." But she was nice enough about it. Deke dropped the top on the car and let the two women climb in. In Godiva's case, it was quite literal, as she'd slipped over the back and into the back seat.

* * *

July 17th  
Principality of Monaco  
0500 CEST

Jason made another note of the security's movements as he observed his target through binoculars from the roof of another nearby building. The Hôtel Hermitage would be, in a few days, the site of a large gathering of European elite. While an epic party in its own right, it also served as a cover for some dark deals. Scandal had hacked the guest list, and discovered their hunch was right, several people related to the diamond cartels would be present.

He set the binoculars down and picked up a scoped rifle, a custom job chambered in .300 WinMag. The scope was a very powerful US Optics, which he'd zeroed a few days ago. Jason began taking range estimates, and wind readings, planning his action well enough in advance. The round his rifle fired was hell on the barrel, so he wanted to minimize the stresses to it, to maintain accuracy.

"Guard patterns in the guest vault are semi-random." Came across the earpiece radio he wore. Ravager's voice was buzzy and faint, but not impossible to make out. She had gotten a room in the hotel the day before, and had been moving about, using ultrasonic devices to get an accurate, up to date layout of the hotel. On the night of their action, these devices would also serve to help them move about undetected.

Scandal was busy beneath the building, hijacking the electronic security, telephone, and internet connections which ran to the hotel. Her work was efficient and quick, which was good, because hotel security took their jobs extremely seriously. "Twenty seconds to next sub level sweep." Jason mentioned, watching the security personnel break off for their patrol. He sighted in on one of them through the rifle scope, checked wind, and calculated flight time.

"Bang." He said quietly, clicking the appropriate dials on his scope to bring it to perfect. He replaced the rifle in the case, gathered his gear, and went into the building. Nobody paid any attention to the internet service repairman, even if he was carrying an extremely long tool box. Jason just politely greeted people in French and went on like nothing was amiss.

Outside, in the van they'd mocked up, Knockout waited, backup in case their preparations went poorly. When Jason climbed into the van, she just sat there with an impatient look. Scandal had promised her good money for this job, but the boredom was almost not worth it. "When are we doing this?" She asked for the hundredth time.

"Couple of days." Jason said patiently. "Then, you can have your fun." He found Scandal's lover to be an interesting soul, though he was already preparing for the eventuality of putting her down if she went off mission. Jason had zero problem ending somebody, but he detested wasting people that didn't deserve it. Knockout hadn't seemed the type to just up and murder people at whim, but he'd never worked with her, so of course, he had to prepare contingencies.

"You got your plan yet?" She asked, this time her tone was more patient, more calculating. Her interest sounding much more professional, and that's what had him worried. She flipped attitudes quickly. Definitely a go big or go home type.

"I do." Jason replied, scooting out of the way for Scandal to slip into the vehicle. She too had a toolkit, which she was careful not to toss on the rifle case. "We'll go over it tonight, but I promise you, you're going to like it."


	10. Chapter 10

July 17th  
Destin, Florida  
0800 CST

"Recognize Nightwing Bee Zero One. Recognize Miss Martian Bee Zero Five. Recognize Wondergirl Bee Two One. Recognize Superboy Bee Zero Four" The Zeta system called out. One by one, the three members of the team materialized. The entirety of the other team was in the area, conveniently doing something productive. Koa first looked at the more established heroes, and then at Batgirl, who was working on her tablet. His facial expression was like that of a puppy, so when she gave him a nod towards M'gann, his excitement erupted. (mercifully, unlike a puppy, he didn't pee everywhere.)

M'gann could feel the happiness off the huge man and just threw her arms out, happy to get hugs. Nightwing and Cassie sidestepped and walked down the small ramp while Miss Martian got wrapped up in a giant bear hug.

"One day, he'll learn to get over being so shy. We're working on it." Godiva said, taking a moment to eye Nightwing appraisingly. And Wonder Girl too. And Miss Martian. And Koa. And Nightwing again. And Batgirl. And Daeva. And Superboy, twice.

"Good luck with that." Nightwing said. He approached Fractal, and the two stepped aside for a private conversation. While they talked, Wondergirl and Miss Martian approached the remainder of the team.

Deke set his copy of The Art of War down (required reading according to Fractal) and stood up. "Miss Martian, Wondergirl, let me introduce my team." He said, and began pointing. "The hug monster is Koa, Fractal's over there talking to Nightwing, this spunky little lady is Daeva, and the blonde to my left is Godiva, or Lady G. Team, this is Miss Martian and Wondergirl. The other guy over there brooding is Superboy." He said, making appropriate gestures.

"I'm happy to meet all of you." Wondergirl said, shaking hands with everyone.

"Yes, this is all very exciting, isn't it?" Miss Martian said, hugging people. When she got to Deke, and they made physical contact, she could feel a push into her thoughts.

[Something's bothering you.] He said telepathically, not a question. He could feel the emotional turmoil within his friend.

[We'll talk about it later. I promise.] M'gann replied. [You owe me an explanation too.] her tone wasn't angry, like he needed to explain why he'd eaten the last cookie. It was curious, like he needed to explain the difference between American and Canadian football. Deke had a good feeling he knew what she was talking about.

"So, are we expected to fight each other? Is that a thing?" Godiva asked, looking at the assembled group. She'd never show it, but the idea of having to throw down against a girl that Wonder Woman was perfectly okay with claiming seemed a bit daunting.

"I dunno, you wanna spar anyway?" Wondergirl offered, not threatening or even really challenging, asking it like she was asking someone if they wanted ice cream.

"I'll wait and see what the overall plan is, thanks though." Godiva said, realizing she might have eaten her foot on that one. Wondergirl looked disappointed by the woman's answer, and strolled towards the kitchen to catch a lean on the counter.

"How you feelin sistah?" Koa asked Daeva, a bit away from the rest of the people. She'd gotten out of the mix of people, content to hang back. The contrast between the two was dramatic. She wasn't quite five feet tall, and he was almost seven. The difference in weight between them was heavier than anyone else in the room except maybe Mustang. But there was a lot similar between the two. Both had tremendous hearts and wore them on their sleeves, and both were just happy to be there.

"I'm well, thank you." Daeva replied in a pleasant tone. "But there's so much going on I felt it best to stay out of the way."

"You shouldn't." Daeva heard to her left. Miss Martian had approached them, and had also apparently overheard their conversation. "We're all here to work together after all."

From the other side of the room, Fractal and Nightwing adjourned their conversation and headed back towards the collected teams. "We'll be training here for now, to take advantage of the closer quarters." Nightwing said. Their destination would present similar challenges and both he and Fractal agreed it was the wiser choice to remain in Florida.

Koa had insisted that the team open with the Ha'a, something quickly becoming legitimate tradition. As he marshalled the team, Batgirl leaned in towards her own people. "This is something to watch." She said to them. "Keep an eye on Daeva."

Again, the team went through the Polynesian ritual, and Batgirl could tell right away they were putting on a much bigger show than previous, their motions and voices much harder and more powerful. As she predicted, Daeva, so small but so very fierce, really got into it.

Following the ritual dance, Nightwing blended the teams, split them into groups, and had them tangle with one another in quick matches, until he and Fractal were satisfied with the compositions. After that, he'd cut Superboy loose on Koa, and let the two titans go at it. Even only half Kryptonian, Superboy was more powerful, but Koa had several years of training on his side.

The end result was messy, but both men looked like they needed to get a real tangle out of their systems. If a person didn't know one or the other, it sort of looked like a simple scrap between two guys, but with the understanding the people watching had, the effect was much more impressive. Rarely did either of them get hit so hard they got rocked back on their feet, and rarely did either of them have to hit the same target twice. That they were able to absorb the impacts from one another, that was a sight to behold.

Following that, it became a lot of exercises, mostly designed to help the two teams understand one another, determine strengths and weaknesses, and in general get a grasp of what they could expect from one another. At one point though, Wondergirl noticed Daeva wasn't too heavily involved.

"What's she going to do for us?" She asked, pointing at Daeva.

"Easy," Fractal said, wiping sweat from his brow. "She will own the environment for us, make it work for our needs." He sounded so proud when he described her, and the feeling lit Daeva up inside with a happy smile. "Asking her to demonstrate her abilities in our home however, is probably not the wisest choice."

After several hours more of this, the two team leaders conferred for a while, comparing notes and working things out. Deke sat down against the wall, relaxing while the two men worked things out. [So, who's going first?] He said telepathically to M'gann.

[I will.] She said from across the room, grabbing a bottle of aloe water from Deke's stash. [I'm seeing L'gann now, and it's making things difficult around Superboy.]

[Is he being proactively hateful, or just keeping his distance?] Deke asked as he pulled his hat down over his face, but not before beckoning to a bottle of aloe water for himself. It sailed gently across the room to land in his hand, and if nothing else, being telekinetic was great for enabling someone's laziness.

[Keeping his distance, saying angry things, walking away without saying anything. I know he's extremely upset about something, but he won't say what.] M'gann said with a frown. She looked up for a moment and politely accepted the granola bar Daeva offered her.

[Okay, so that's being a guy.] Deke offered. [He'll say it eventually, or he'll get over it. In the meantime, it'll keep bottled up. It's just how we operate. I'd offer to say something but he's still not my biggest fan.]

[Thanks. I'm sure we'll be able to resolve this eventually. Care to fill me in on you now?] She offered, and across the room, she gave him the sweetest look of expectation.

[What do you wanna know? You asking about me and Babs?]

[Of course silly. She told me about you two, y'know, getting _together_ , but she wasn't forthcoming on details. Not that I'm asking for details or anything, that's not what I meant.] Across the room, M'gann was blushing furiously. Barbara didn't miss it either. Instead, she just kept watch on her friend's reactions, to see if she could gauge her boy's response.

Deke snickered audibly, and sat his hat down in his lap. [Well, I mean, I finally told her I loved her. I know you knew about it, but I didn't realize that I did at the time. She didn't run off so, there you go.]

M'gann smiled brightly, without a blush. Barbara was pleased to see that, and could guess their topic of conversation. It brought warmth into her heart, though she kept her poker face. She had rules about things after all.

[I'm so happy for both of you!] She all but squealed. Deke was pleased to see her able to forget her trouble for a minute, and he knew Barbara would feel similar.

[Thanks.] Deke said, glad there was emotional undercurrent to their conversation. He was also trying to keep a poker face, wasn't so great at it, but he was trying. [You'll get your own stuff sorted too, I know you will.]

Deke stood up and wandered towards the kitchen proper, rooting about for something to eat. As he did, he took the time to really observe the people gathered in the base. They weren't quite connecting yet, still mostly keeping to themselves.

Settling on a jar of peanut butter and spoon, Deke ate quietly for a while, and watched Nightwing and Fractal talk. He shifted his perceptions and saw that neither man was quite on the same wavelength, both of them trying to make a point. He was about to go pick a fight with Superboy, just to give people something to watch, when it seemed like the two team leaders finally arrived on something agreeable.

"We've got the new assignments." Fractal said, and gestured to Nightwing, letting him go first.

"Three squads on this mission. Wondergirl, Batgirl, Godiva, and Mustang are Alpha. They'll be infiltrating as guests to the event. Myself, Miss Martian, and Fractal are Beta, we'll be handling accessing the security system and hitting the vault. Gamma is Superboy, Koa, and Daeva. They'll be posing as hotel staff, serving as backup to either team as necessary, as well as sweeping for unforeseen security and other hazards." Nightwing said, watching them shuffle into their new assignments.

Fractal waved his hand near the base's main terminal, and used the holographic interface to blow up a layout of a hotel. "These assignments aren't perfect. I deplore the reference, but we've intentionally mismanaged our assets. This mission, while extremely important, does not present considerable risk of safety, so we've decided to see how a few of you handle things."

"Always training." Wondergirl muttered to Batgirl. "Can't just enjoy a party."

Batgirl nudged and quietly shushed her, as Nightwing and Fractal began fully explaining the plan.

"The Hôtel Hermitage is a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo, site of a very exclusive gathering happening in a few days time. We have reason to believe that blood diamond smuggling has been used to finance some very nasty things, like the recent kidnappings and missing persons cases that are increasing worldwide. We're looking for evidence of this, something we can track back to the people responsible, and tie to them for prosecution." Nightwing said, giving the overarching goal.

"Alpha squad, under Batgirl's command, will go in, in civilian cover, and pose as guests. While there, they will be secretly recording the events. An automatic script will run and match faces to all available law enforcement databases." Fractal explained, pulling up a hologram of a schematic for some kind of spy camera lenses.

"Batgirl, you have your own, but Fractal will need to see them to match the tech." Nightwing said. Batgirl nodded. They were actually her everyday glasses, she just didn't often use them for anything but corrective purposes.

"Beta squad, we'll be entering through other means, including roof and basement access. We're tasked with actually breaching the hotel's vault, and replacing some of the illegal diamonds with fakes fitted with nano-tracking devices. It sounds easy, but this is a highly advanced security system, Miss Martian can't just density shift in. It has to be bypassed." Nightwing said, carrying on the briefing. The decision he and Fractal made to put both team leaders on one squad was what had taken them the longest to hash out. In the end, they'd decided that this task was too important to not combine their abilities to achieve.

"Gamma, your mission is straightforward. Observe and report, and be ready in the event of an emergency. Superboy will take lead, and all of you will have ultrasonic mapping devices, also tied to a script, which will alert us to anything amiss between the registered blueprints and what we're actually seeing." Fractal concluded.

"Any questions?" Nightwing asked.

"Yeah, I have one." Godiva piped up. "Are we supposed to just waltz through the door and expect to be welcomed by the doormen? I mean, this can't just be open to the public."

"No. We have a way in." Nightwing said. "Queen Perdita of Vlatava will be in attendance, she's already agreed to have a squad as part of her entourage. She's also a secondary objective. She has relatives that want nothing more than to see her off the throne, so if something happens, drop everything to protect her."

"I will handle most of the gear for the mission, but Alpha and Gamma will need appropriate clothing." Fractal said. "Batgirl, you and Superboy will handle this for your squads, and I'll only need your glasses for about two minutes of non-intrusive study. Thank you in advance."

"Ok team, fall out and relax." Nightwing said.


	11. Chapter 11

July 17th  
Destin, Florida  
1700 CST

Deke couldn't ignore a direct order from a senior team member, so he'd immediately changed out of his costume. He didn't want to be standoffish, but with so many people in the main portion of their small base, he was starting to burn up, so he was lurking in his bedroom to cool off for a few. He still felt uncomfortable around large groups too, but he was firmly sure it was just too warm in there, that's the only reason he was in his room.

His door slid open, which was nothing surprising. He kept his door unlocked on purpose. When he opened his eyes, he saw his beloved slipping into his room. "Hi Cowboy." She said, sounding a little worried. "You getting spooked out there?"

"Nah," Deke said, scooting into a sitting position to give her room. She pulled her cowl down and sat with him. "It was getting too hot out there, but then all of a sudden, there's a Batgirl in my room, and now it's hot in here too."

Barbara showed him the tip of her tongue. "Thank you for compartmentalizing our relationship, I meant to say it earlier, but I've been distracted." She assumed it was due to his psychic gifts that he realized she had a separate persona when the uniform was on.

"No problem. I take it, speaking of compartmentalizing; I should behave myself at the moment?" Deke asked, and he really didn't want to. No matter what she wore, she stole his breath, and if he was being honest, she looked damn hot in suit.

"For the moment." She said with a wink. "We actually have to Zeta to New York tomorrow morning. We've got to get proper clothing for our job, and I've got a wonderful credit card, courtesy of someone on the League."

"So, big group outing to the Big Apple?" Deke said, watching her dig through her small overnight bag for her glasses.

Barbara triumphantly pulled her glasses free from her things, and then leaned in to steal a quick kiss from her boy. (the cowl was down, it skirted the rules.) "Yep, me, you, Cassie and Godiva. People might think you're some kind of baller."

"That's something I never in my whole entire life expected to ever be called." Deke said with a bashful look on his face. "So what do I have to wear to this thing?"

Barbara didn't hesitate. "Tuxedo or three piece from a big name designer. There's no way around it for something like this. Ever worn either?"

"This'll be the closest thing to a prom I ever attended." Deke said honestly.

"We can play with the details later." Barbara said. "I'm going to see the team off, you coming?"

Deke stood up with her and swapped his shorts for pants before tossing on his longrider coat with that same swirling motion. Barbara immediately knew who taught it to him, having a laugh to herself about it. She handed him his hat, and the two walked back out.

The parting wasn't as quick. M'gann could make friends wherever she went, and even in an emotional low point, she'd managed to click with the other team pretty well. Cassie had too, especially with Godiva, which to Deke did not bode well. Koa, of course, hugged everyone. Cassie twice actually, since he could give her a proper squeeze without crushing her.

"Hey, we cool?" Deke finally mustered up the courage to ask Superboy. There was something profoundly different about the guy. He didn't have that same anger showing, but all the same, Deke had fortified himself with a layer of telekinetic force at the dermal level.

"Yeah, we're cool." Superboy replied, shaking hands. He seemed like he wasn't sure why he was being asked, but he'd just decided to go along with it. It didn't take a psychic to realize he was in pain, but Deke wasn't about to get involved in that.

Nightwing made quick rounds, but Deke took the time to speak to him quietly. "She told me about the car, thank you. That means a hell of a lot."

"It's no big deal." Nightwing said. Truth be told, it really wasn't. Bruce was only vaguely aware that he'd even gotten the thing to begin with, and only really paid attention when it was shown in use when Dick was in the cave with him. "Keep her safe."

"We still talkin' about the car?"

Nightwing just gave a cryptic half grin, before his team got recognized. Once they departed, Koa beelined for the kitchen, with most of the team hot on his heels. Only Barbara didn't dart that way, instead headed towards the bedrooms.

"You uh, you wanna hand getting out of all that?" Deke asked her, trying to sound smooth, and not at all sounding smooth.

"Not this time Cowboy. You gave me an idea about this but now it requires the right timing. You can help me out of my regular clothes tonight though." She said with a wink.

Now that had made him curious, but he respected her wishes, so he instead he tossed his hat and coat, and headed to the kitchen to help with dinner. It was Koa's turn to cook, and the man could most certainly cook. Tonight, it was fresh caught mahi mahi, because having an Atlantean around always made for fresh fish, with coconut rice and roasted green beans at the insistence of Daeva that they at least try to have a vegetable on occasion and no, macaroni and cheese wasn't a vegetable.

Barbara joined them shortly, dressed in her comfortable civilian clothes, and sat at the dining table playing cards with the four hungry team members while they waited on Koa and Deke to make food happen. Like Mount Justice, this place had a massive television, but also like Mount Justice, it seemed like it didn't get much use.

Dinner was short in coming though, which was a mercy. The team's rice cooker had a timer, which Koa had set that morning. Once the bell was figuratively rang, they gathered and enjoyed a meal together. "You know, I don't think the League does this. Miss Martian does for the team whenever she can, and you all take turns, but I don't think the League does at all."

"That's because they ain't got cooks like us Sistah." Koa said, adding more food to Barbara's plate. "Lady G our weakest cook but she still know a thing or two." He added, getting the no-look fist bump from his teammate.

"It's true." Fractal said. "We eat very well here."

"Me and your boy the best though." Koa said proudly. "I bet he never cook for you either."

"Not true." Barbara replied between bites. She had to stop herself from getting more of the coconut rice. "He's cooked for me several times."

"Then why ain't you feedin' her right brah?" Koa said, scolding Deke. He went to give Barbara more to eat, but she managed to put her hands up. With a shrug, Koa dumped the scoop of rice on Daeva's plate.

"Because when she says she's done eating, I stop feeding her?" Deke drawled, absently gnawing at a green bean. While she was more than happy to enjoy decidedly unhealthy food, he knew his girl tried to limit it.

"That's a pretty clear indication." Daeva remarked. "Speaking of, I think I'm good."

"Don't nobody know how to eat around here." Koa grumbled. To make a liar of him, Godiva added more to her plate and just gave an out of character sweet smile to her teammate. "Okay, Lady G does."

"Yeah, because it all goes to her boobs," Daeva groused as she collected the empty plates. "How, I will never know." Even that sounded classier, due to her accent.

"Trade secret. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." Godiva said, handing her now empty plate to Daeva as she passed. The truth was, it was pure winning the genetic lottery, but she wasn't about to say that.

Barbara just looked at Deke, amused at the lot of them. He grinned back and made a rather grandiose gesture with his hand, causing all of the plates Daeva was carrying, plus all of the dinner dishes to float into the air, and then into the kitchen. With a few more flicks, looking like an orchestra conductor, the dishes found their way into the dishwasher, and one paper napkin rose settled in front of Barbara.

"Thanks for getting the dishes, you bloody showoff." Daeva said. Why Batgirl had such a proud look on her face was beyond her. All he'd done was clean up. "And why don't we get paper flowers? What's all that then?"

"Daeva, honey, I'll tell you later." Godiva said, getting up from the table. "But it might give you nightmares. If it does, you can sleep in the bed with me."

Daeva just shook her head and flopped down on the sofa, she'd tried to rib her teammate, just some good natured poking, and of course Godiva had made it dirty. Fractal gave Koa's shoulder a squeeze. "Thank you for making dinner." He said, even though it was Koa's turn, it still needed said.

"Yeah, Mahalo." Deke said as he got up with Barbara.

"Shoots fam." Koa said with a bashful grin before he rose from the table. "I'm going fishing; call me if you need me." He said, and on his way out the door, he paused to get into a coat closet, but instead of getting a coat, he produced a speargun.

Fractal approached Barbara, who just removed her glasses and handed them to him. "I should be good for tonight; I don't expect I'll be doing any heavy reading."

"They'll be in excellent hands, I promise you." He said, and walked away, leaving Barbara with her boy. She looked at him and winked before taking his hand and walking to his room with him.

Once they were inside his room, Barbara placed a kiss on her boy's nose. He wasn't a whole lot taller than her, but he was tall enough she had to get on tiptoes to do it and damn if she wasn't cute as hell when she did stuff like that. Deke cupped her face and placed a kiss on her lips, which she leaned into for a moment before pulling away. "Can I see your laptop?" She asked, and immediately Deke's mind went to some very strange places.

"Sure." Deke said, making a gesture and causing it to slide out from under the bed. Barbara picked it up, plugged her phone into it, and after messing with it for a few moments, music began to fill the room. Deke didn't recognize it, to be honest, it sounded like coffeehouse stuff, but it was pleasant at least.

"So, what do you want to do Cowboy?" Barbara asked, sliding back up against him to give him a look with those gorgeous blue eyes.

Deke had to resist the urge to just take her there and then, if she was giving him the go ahead to do what he wanted. No, it wasn't even seven in the evening, they had all night. "Sit." He said to her, giving a welcoming gesture. "I want to tell you something."

"Okay, what is it?" She asked, sitting on the bed with her legs crossed under her. Her face was so bright, he was glad he was going to tell her something good.

"So, this morning, when I got dressed and ready for the day, I was in the locker room brushing my teeth, and the damndest thing happened. I looked in the mirror, and I wasn't sure who I was looking at." Deke said. Barbara just leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands and looking too damn adorable.

"And I was like, who's this smug lookin' asshole?" he said. When he continued, his tone was quieter. "And, I realized, it was me. And I didn't hate it."

"I could tell." She said, reaching out and ruffling his mane of hair before bracing on him and leaning in for a kiss. It was tender, and sweet, and it even sounded like a Hollywood kiss when their lips parted. "And I'm happy I was here for it."

On a whim, Deke took one of her feet. He wasn't a foot guy, but he had an idea he wanted to try. Before Barbara could say anything, he began kneading up against the ball of her foot. "Ok, that can keep happening." She said, laying back and relaxing. "Are you going to ask me for something we haven't done before and you think I'll say no? Because depending on what it is, this might actually get you a yes."

"I dunno, maybe, I hadn't thought about it." Deke said, still massaging her foot, using one hand to work around her toes while he used the other to apply a little more pressure around her heel. He could feel her metaphorically melting at his touch. He wondered if this was due to beginner's luck or if she just really needed it.

Barbara just enjoyed his attention, letting him go to work on her feet. An occasional soft moan escaped her lips, though she tried to keep her volume in check, what with most of the resident team still at home. She especially didn't want to draw Godiva's attention, though Barbara was certain that girl was a lot more bluster than anything else.

She was mildly disappointed when he switched feet on her, because she knew her rough halfway point. Six songs for her right foot, at around three minutes a pop, so eighteen minutes give or take, which actually wasn't that bad. It seemed like he was timing himself to the music too, as he switched where he was focusing about every change of the song. Barbara couldn't resist calling him out on it.

"I'm making a playlist with much longer songs the next time you do this." She said, her voice content and pleased.

"Go for it, I probably wouldn't notice anyway." Deke said, working on her Achilles tendon and the arch of her foot.

"You still trust me, right?" She asked. When he nodded, she continued. "I don't abide just taking, so when you're done, lose the shirt and lay face down on the bed." She instructed. "I still have another couple songs left though, so no hurry." She added with a wink.


	12. Chapter 12 (Lemon Squares)

July 17th  
Destin, Florida  
1900 CST

Once Deke was finished with Barbara's feet, he did as she instructed and tossed his shirt. She couldn't resist tickling his stomach, something he actually dearly loved about her. She was so loving, so giving, that it was occasionally hard to resolve the fact that she was also pretty much a ninja who enjoyed throwing evil a beating.

He laid down on the bed once she'd moved, basically face planting. He couldn't resist looking at her though, so he propped up on an arm and craned his neck to look. Barbara was at the foot of his bed, and put her hands on the foot board. She squatted down a bit and then pushed up, bringing herself into a handstand, before finishing the movement, delicately putting one foot on his shoulder and the other beside him. Okay, that was too freakin' hot.

"Face down and don't move." She said in an admonishing tone, gently nudging him down with her toes. When she was satisfied, she put her other foot on his back, and put her hands flat against the ceiling to ensure her balance.

"Oh my damn." Deke muttered as he felt the balls of her feet dig into the musculature of his back, her toes digging into spots he didn't know he had. She sang along to the music on her playlist while she worked, her voice quite lovely.

Barbara was having fun doing it too, taking her hands off the ceiling and just using her admittedly impressive balance. The constant need to correct herself to maintain standing had the additional effect of working more of the tension out of his body. It was easy to dismiss that he had nothing to worry about, but she knew better. The way he talked to her on the very rare opportunities they had to Skype one another while she was away was enough to tell her how much he worried about her. Everyone had their burdens, and they'd ease each other's, together.

"So, honey, now, take me into your loving arms. Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars. Place your head on my beating heart. I'm thinking out loud, maybe we found love right where we are." She sang as she stepped across his back, his pleased and contented noises encouraging her.

Barbara kept this up for a few more songs, deciding that his skin getting red might be a sign to stop. She put her feet on either side of him and watched as he turned in place. She bent at the knees and knelt down over him, and placed a kiss on her boy. Her lips brushed against his, delicate and teasing. He responded by pushing himself to a sitting position and kissing her back, his hands meeting the back of her head and the small of her back.

She rested her weight against him, not missing the irony of her straddling him being their go-to position for intimacy, after telling Selena months ago that she wasn't going to do it. Still, they teased each other with their lips, Deke getting his fingers well and caught up in her hair.

He used this to his advantage, pulling her head back and away gently so that he could kiss along her neck, and by this point goosebumps were an inevitable reaction but dammit did he delight in it or something?

Barbara exhaled audibly, her breath hitching in pleasure. "Slow down Cowboy." She said, more cutesy and shy than she'd like. "We've got all night." His body was most certainly signaling its interest in her already, and while she most certainly had her own physical wants, the emotional ones outweighed them at the moment.

Deke blushed, he'd told himself the exact same thing not that long ago. "Yeah, you're right." He said as he placed his hands on her hips, mostly just to touch her. "You're tough to resist, but I'll make the effort."

"Thank you." Barbara said sweetly. Deke leaned in and kissed her on the corner of her eye, his breath tickling her ear. She swatted at him playfully and took his hands to hold onto before returning to the teasing kisses she so enjoyed giving.

The brush of her lips across his was both endearing and sensual. He wasn't lying about her being hard to resist. In private, she was a dangerous mix of romantic and physical, taking such joy in the small teasing touches as well as intense engagement.

Deke rolled with her, until she was beneath him, Barbara giggling at the motion. He disengaged from between her legs before he got ahead of himself again, and laid beside her, wrapping her up in his arms to embrace her as they kissed.

Barbara couldn't explain, in any coherent terms, why she craved being so close with her love. She knew it had to do with the costume, but she was sure it had been like that before she'd ever donned cape and cowl. All she knew was, this moment was almost preferable to the extremely intense lovemaking they engaged in. It didn't help that they were both very intense people, either. Both of them seeming to ascribe to the rules of go big or go home.

She worked one of her hands between their bodies to rest it against his chest, over his heart. "I love you Deacon Flynn." She whispered into his ear. As soon as she said it, she could see color rising into his cheeks. He squeezed her tighter and rubbed noses with her.

"I love you too Barbara Gordon." Deke replied, kissing her again, giving a light nibble to her bottom lip. She made another whimpering moan, still trying to control her volume. Deke loved that she was so vocal, helping him know when she was enjoying herself. Her trying to be quiet was almost sexier though, even though this was already private, it felt more like a secret between them.

They toyed with each other for a while, just content to lightly tease the other, when Deke decided to tease her just a bit more. "So, M'gann knew about us." He said with a smirk. Barbara's face rushed to match the shade of her hair.

"She said something really awkward without meaning to, didn't she?" Barbara said, knowing full well that despite her well-meaning intentions, the girl sometimes didn't think before speaking. It also explained why she'd blushed when she and Deke were quite obviously speaking telepathically earlier.

"Nah, she almost did, but she dodged it. I'm just curious what you said." Still that smirk on his face. She wanted to kiss him just to shush him, make him forget about the whole thing, but that just wouldn't do. She'd have to fight herself to avoid slapping him if he tried the same trick with her. Besides, she could have fun with this.

"Well, I don't usually disclose conversations like that, but a few of us were talking and Rocket made a comment about me still being a virgin, and Artemis couldn't keep her mouth closed. She kept going on about how she had to watch us since she was looking after me." At that, her boy colored just like she had. Inwardly, Barbara ticked a point up for herself.

"So of course Zatanna had to ask about it, so I told the truth, how we go for hours, how we can't move afterwards." She was being damn sultry about this explanation too. "I told them how we'd touch each other, kiss and lick, peel each other out of our clothes before we'd go to bed and make love. They asked if it was good and I couldn't help but tell them how you make me scream."

"Seriously?" Deke asked, bewitched by her re-telling, and by how she'd hooked her leg over his and began grinding into him.

"No, not really. I just said yes we're sleeping together, I find it very enjoyable, and if they wanted more details than that then tough, because that's as much as I was going to give them." Barbara said triumphantly.

Deke swatted at her bottom, more tapping with his fingertips than anything, but Barbara was still feeling her inner troll. She took on a pouty, coquettish look and batted her eyes at him. "That _was_ bad of me, I think I do need punished."

Deke's mouth opened in surprise, his eyes blinking quickly in abject shock. Barbara showed him the tip of her tongue and giggled before kissing him. Deke knew he'd lost this one and just went with it, kissing her back. There was no teasing this time though, the two of them rolling back and forth to take charge of the other, until Barbara caught him making a move, and pulled him on top of her. It wasn't so much she was feeling submissive, it was more of her curiosity. She wanted to know what he'd do.

Deke took her arms at the wrists, and moved them until they were crossed over her head. "You're letting me do this." He said to her, stating the obvious before leaning down and kissing and nibbling on her neck.

"Yes I am." Barbara replied as she slid her legs up and against his sides before crossing her ankles and pulling him in. In response, Deke put one hand under her back and the other behind her head before sitting up at the knees, pulling her up with him, before pushing her against the wall behind the bed. While he didn't slam her, the effect was nearly the same. Her eyes flew wide open, surprised at her boy (and more than a little excited).

He kissed her again, rougher without being hostile. Barbara, not at all upset at this, replied in like. Maybe she should rile him up more often? He went back to her neck and collar, trailing kisses and nibbles. The effect was what he expected, Barbara's hands in his mane of hair, grasping and tugging, trying to find something to do with her hands.

She finally managed to pull his face back to hers, a hungry look in her eyes. His were little different, predatory and reflecting her desire. She crushed her lips into his and was surprised when he turned with her away from the wall, and got into a standing position. When he released her for a moment and left her hanging in the air, her eyes flew wide.

With little flicks and gestures, he undid the row of buttons on her purple skirt. She watched it slide down her legs to land on the floor. The loose button up she'd thrown back on began pulling itself apart, each button undoing itself in slow succession. This garment slid off her back and down her arms, pulling her just enough. In her mind, she was waging an internal war. This should _not_ be turning her on as much as it was. As a strong woman, she appreciated a strong man, and she'd definitely had a hand in making her boy into one. This was altogether different though.

In only a bra and panties, she floated there suspended in the air. Deke moved back to her and used his hands on her undergarments, this close requiring his actual touch. His fingers worked over the clasp of her bra, and in the back of his mind he was eternally grateful it had released as easily as it had, because fighting with it would have seriously wrecked this whole situation they had going on right now.

As soon as her bra fell to the floor, he took her breasts in his hands, his thumbs working over her almost painfully stiff nipples. She moaned quietly as he massaged her, obviously enjoying the feeling too. He trailed his tongue across both nipples, sending a shiver and of course more goosebumps across her body, before hooking his fingers into her panties and sliding them off.

The scent of her arousal was immediate, and to Deke, quite pleasant. He placed the palm of his hand on her stomach, and felt the texture of her ab muscles as he slid his hand down, torturously slow. He also stepped in even closer towards her, looking her dead in the eye.

Her limbs began to move, the pressure slow and gentle, reminding her that while she might have riled him up more than she'd expected, he was still himself and wasn't looking to actually hurt her. She found her arms and legs reaching away from one another, leaving her spread-eagled, suspended in the air.

Finally, his fingertip found her, trailing long, slow pulls against her opening. So physically responsive, it took almost no time for her moans to start. "Shhh." Deke said, taking his hand away for a moment.

She refused to pout for real, but this experience, so different than their usual, was working for her and she didn't want him to stop. He returned to his attentions to her, firmly using his fingertips to tease her. He even shifted his perceptions, watching the way his hands affected her, adjusting appropriately until he was strumming her desire like a guitar, bringing her close and backing off.

He refused to go all the way into denying her though, the sounds of her in climax were too much a siren song to him, so when he should have backed off of her again, he continued. The effect was immediate and pleasing. Her orgasm hit and he had to immediately kiss her to muffle her voice, to prevent his roommates from hearing her. Even then, they still might. She was not a quiet girl.

He wanted to keep going with her once she'd started. Barbara was perfectly capable of multiples, a trait they both enjoyed taking advantage of. Deke didn't though, he kept pace with her, letting her ride it out.

To Barbara, the feeling was emotionally intense. She was such a jumble of feelings and wants, simultaneously aroused by this treatment and confused as to why she was. When he turned his back to her and stepped towards the bed, he made just one simple mistake.

He released his telekinetic hold on her body.

She'd only been a few inches off the ground, so even with the sudden grasp of gravity, she landed on her feet, silent as ever, and reached into her bag. When Deke turned around, she pounced on him, bringing her weight to bear and knocking him onto the bed. The sight of her, flushed pale skin and a thin sheen of sweat, as she straddled over his knees, the look of a mad woman on her face, made it his turn to question why he was so aroused.

When she produced the small knife she'd concealed in her hand, his questioning turned to concern. If she didn't want to let him up, he'd be pressed to move her safely, and she most obviously didn't want to let him up. Barbara flicked the blade open, and then slipped them into the leg of his shorts. One deft move and she cut his pants off of him, quite literally, leaving him bare before her.

Barbara closed the knife and gave him a wicked smile. "Did I scare you?" She asked, not waiting for an answer before she yanked his now ruined shorts off of him, tossing them aside. Deke tried to actually reply to her question, but she had already shimmied up his body. She reached between them, took hold of him, and guided him into her.

She drove her body down quite suddenly once she was comfortable enough of him had cleared her. The sensation struck them both in its own way, causing Deke to inhale and Barbara to moan. She ground down onto him, trying to take more than he actually had, which made her boy blink hard, trying to process the feeling.

There was no pretense to romance in her movements. She started riding him hard, and didn't relent from the pace. Whatever annoyances and frustrations she had, she took out on him. Again, her fingers found his body, and while she tried desperately hard not to rip into him, her nails still bit deep. If he cared, he didn't show it, his face a mask of pleasure.

In truth, he'd had to shut off most of his pleasure center to keep from finishing the moment she'd taken him, what few he kept functional were sending enough signals though. He didn't know where he'd discovered the attitude he'd had with her, or where she found this hellcat within her, but at the moment, he didn't care.

The only downfall to her approach was that it tired her more quickly than usual, so when her pace slowed, he picked up for her, pulling her against his chest, lifting his behind off the bed, and using the leverage to begin driving into her.

She'd been trying so hard to keep quiet while she took him, and had for the most part been successful. Her orgasms were happening in rapid succession but none were overwhelmingly powerful. When he began in on her though, and she was able to concentrate only on herself for a moment, her body began responding much more powerfully.

She nipped at him again, several little bites against his neck and shoulders. Deke put one hand against the back of her head and held her against his shoulder. "Go for it." He whispered into her ear, and if he was asking for it, she would give it to him. She bit down against his deltoid muscle, her voice straining and struggling to keep to a respectable volume.

Now this one, he noticed. The burning sting was bright and very present, but it didn't deter him. This was who she was, and he truly, deeply loved her for it. Still, he couldn't let her take an actual piece of out of him, or damage her teeth trying, so he slowed his speed and let her ride out her last climax.

Barbara was going to say something about how he hadn't finished yet but he was already in motion, helping her move around and getting behind her. She bent over, knowing what he was aiming for, silently amused that they had yet to actually try this position. He put a hand in between her shoulder blades, gently guiding her further down against the bed, and then lined himself up. He took caution in this endeavor, making sure to avoid an accident with his aim, certain that she'd prefer to discuss it before they tried anything involving her bottom.

When he finally pushed into her, Barbara had to grab a handful of blanket to muffle herself with. The experience was absolutely wonderful to her, the way his hands felt on her hips as he kept a steady pace, driving her into the bed. When his hand found her hair, she had a moment of concern, but he didn't yank, he just held onto it, giving light little tugs.

She climaxed a small handful of times as he took her, these more powerful than before. It was magnificent, but it was also beginning to hurt from the overstimulation. Since Deke had kept his perceptions shifted, he could see the effect it was having, so he fully restarted his pleasure centers, and was immediately assaulted by the sensation.

Beneath him, Barbara was having a minor religious experience, repeating "Oh my God." Over and over through the wad of blankets. Oh my God was right too, Deke had forgotten to gradually restore his pleasure centers so the feeling was quite powerful. He could feel his finish building quickly but he wanted to look at his love when it happened, so he withdrew from her and helped her onto her back.

He entered her again, and any break the change of positions might have had was quickly beyond its usefulness. The red flush of her skin, the way her breasts bounced, the way her eyes were shut tight as she still held onto the handful of blanket to muffle herself, it was more than enough to push him over the edge.

Barbara had been waiting for the moment though; surprised she had the presence of mind to remember. When she felt his grip on her hips tighten, and his eyes shut tight, she spoke up, "On me, not in me." She said in an extremely naughty tone. If that's what she wanted, he wouldn't tell her no, so he withdrew, her words being the last straw, and experienced his own orgasm. When he did, Barbara watched as the first jet struck her breasts, while the next few landed across her stomach and cleavage.

"Holy damn." Deke muttered as he flopped down on the bed next to her. Barbara muttered an agreement, her body feeling as worn out as he looked.

"Do you have something I could clean up with?" She asked, gesturing towards the mess he'd made of her. While that warm feeling on her skin, coupled with the knowledge that she'd brought him to it, was nice, it was getting cold quickly.

Deke gestured at his hamper, a towel flying up and out of it to land in her hand. She wiped herself off quickly, but diligently, before rolling it up and tossing it into the hamper. Not quite as mentally wrecked as usual, but quite thoroughly satiated, Barbara rolled over on her side to look at her boy.

"So, that was fun." She finally managed to say.

Deke rolled over to face her as well, and gave her a wonderfully derpy grin. "Yes it was. Sorry if that 'Fifty Shades of Batgirl' was weird, I just didn't know what else to do."

Barbara inspected the most recent bit of her handiwork. He'd definitely have a bruise on his shoulder, and there'd be welts on his chest. Six little crescent moon shaped cuts sat at the top of some of those red marks, where her fingernails had actually broken skin. Maybe she did have some issues she needed to work through.

"Oh, it was just fine." She said. "I was going to apologize for me turning into Catwoman on you too. Maybe this is something else we add to the sometimes list though?"

"Fine by me babe." Deke said. He'd been reading a lot lately, in preparation for college, and had stumbled across Jung, and finally had a name for something. What he'd been calling going off the chain was similar in description to his Id taking over, and it had done so again with her. He wasn't a fan.

They laid there quietly for a while, letting the cool air of his room take some of the heat off while they cuddled into one another. It was nice, until the moment was interrupted by a pounding on his door.

"If you two are finished, Koa brought ice cream." Godiva said, and Deke could feel undercurrents in her speech, like the rest of the team had nominated her to potentially interrupt them, and she wasn't happy about it.


	13. Chapter 13

July 18th  
Manhattan, New York City  
1100 EST

The view of the city was both terrifying and breathtaking. Metropolis was huge, Gotham was huge, but this, _this_ was the Big Apple. None of Deke's companions seemed in the slightest bit awed, but the absolute mass of humanity housed in the city was overwhelming. The sights and sounds, hopes and dreams, and sorrows and heartache of over eight and a half million people forced Deke to take a long moment. He was already dreading the subway.

It was Cassie, not Barbara, who reacted first by latching onto him, hugging his arm. Barbara obviously didn't mind, she knew Cassie had zero romantic interest in him, not even considering the age gap between them. Still, Barbara slipped her fingers into his, grasping his hand.

Godiva, well, she couldn't be bothered to care. Her excitement at being in New York was obvious. Her general expression was a nonplussed whatever to most things not related to sex or video games, but here, she seemed to come alive. "Where are we going first?"

"Boss on Broadway." Barbara said, her beautiful mind mapping their route. They had been given all day, and she was absolutely going to take advantage of it. "Deke will be the quickest to get taken care of, and I already booked a fitting."

"A what now?" Deke asked, confused. You just go in, the employee measures you, and you get the stuff that fits, that's how it was supposed to go.

"A suit fitting, Cowboy. This tux has got to fit right, or we're never getting in." Barbara said patiently. She, being a cop's daughter, had only had to learn about higher fashion very recently, so she understood where he was coming from.

"Tape measure up the inseam, uncomfortable proximity to a stranger, the whole nine." Godiva said teasingly. Barbara gave the girl a sour look, waving down a taxi. The four of them piled into the bright yellow minivan; Barbara asking the driver to get them to the Boss store.

Along the way, their driver chattered idly with them, immediately pegging their accents, which made Godiva uncomfortable when he said she sounded like she was from the Hamptons. Barbara gave Deke a glance, but he replied with a very slight shake of his head.

The ride itself was quite short, only taking about fifteen minutes or so from where they'd Zeta'd in. Barbara paid with the credit card she'd been allowed to use for this job, giving a fair tip, and the four of them piled out of the taxi in front of the designer's store.

Upon entering the place, Deke felt every bit of his simple country upbringing. Everything looked too expensive, and by reflex he'd stuffed his hands in his pockets as he'd been taught, so as not to break anything. Cassie and Godiva wandered around while Barbara kept with her boy.

"Still so skittish." She scolded playfully. "What happened to the man from last night?"

Deke colored brightly. "You're still dressed." He replied, taking a hand of his pocket to offer her. She showed him the tip of her tongue and then gestured towards the counter, where an employee was walking up.

"Can I help you?" He asked of the couple. His immediate judgement of them was that she was more comfortable being in here than he was, but they seemed like a cute couple.

"I got my boyfriend a fitting for a present. It's under Gordon." Barbara said pleasantly, satisfied to see Cassie doing her job in running interference with the only person she was with that she didn't trust with her name.

The employee checked a small tablet and nodded. "The tuxedo fitting, right?"

"That's it. Come on mi amor, let's get you shined up." She said, pulling on her boy's hand.

They followed the store employee upstairs and waited until the tailor was available. Barbara leaned into her boy and smiled, and he couldn't resist her. Smiling back, he kissed her on the top of her head.

Their wait wasn't long. A suited middle aged man approached them after a moment, seemingly excited to be there. He greeted them with a hearty "Good afternoon!" before shaking Deke's hand, and kissing Barbara's, like a total gent.

"The notes on your appointment said this was your first tuxedo, is that right?" The tailor asked, having Deke step up on a small podium which was surrounded by three tall mirrors. Another employee slid a chair over for Barbara, giving her an excellent view.

"Yessir, that's right," Deke said. Immediately, the tailor took measurements, working with a well-practiced efficiency. Once he had his numbers, he handed them off to the employee, who darted off to pull some different styles.

"Where are you wearing this to?" The tailor asked while they waited.

Barbara spoke up to answer. "A friend is getting married on the Côte d'Azur. Very high end affair."

This seemed to satisfy the tailor, who turned to look at the very bashful customer he'd been handed. "Piece of advice son." He said, gesturing towards Barbara. "That lovely young lady should always be the picture. It's your job to be the frame, and it _is_ a job, so take it seriously."

"I try sir." Deke said, still feeling extremely out of his element. The employee returned with a few jackets, hanging them on a clothing rack. When the tailor asked Deke to try each on, he took his time doing so. They all seemed about the same to him, only minor differences between them.

Barbara, from her vantage point, seemed to like one in particular. She asked Deke to try it on again, so he pulled the second of the three back over his shoulders. It was a light wool with silk lapels. He eyeballed himself in the mirror, and while he wasn't sure that a plain white tee shirt was the thing to wear beneath it, the jacket itself looked pretty good.

"I can't argue with her. I'll take this one." Deke said, and the tailor nodded.

"Excellent choice. It puts you just enough out there to be noticed, without demanding attention." The tailor began adding pins and pulling at the material, doing some kind of ancient arcane ritual "What color will you be wearing miss?" He asked, looking at Barbara.

"I'm not certain yet. I tend to prefer purples and blacks." She said. Her phone buzzed at that moment, though it was a text from Cassie saying she and Godiva were down the street to browse a few other places.

The tailor thought about it for a moment, and asked his assistant to bring up a few items, referring to them only by item numbers with sizes. She was about to walk off when he paused her a moment. "Your shoe size young man?"

"Thirteen." Deke replied, looking to his girl for some kind of encouragement. She just tipped her glasses down at him and winked. This brought the smile she'd hoped it would, her boy looking so lost and small in front of the tailor's mirrors. While she'd worked her butt off trying to instill some confidence into him, these moments she found so perfectly endearing.

When the assistant returned, she was carrying a few more garment bags plus shoes. The tailor instructed Deke to take these items into the dressing room and try them on. Barbara sat there, her phone in hand with the camera app pulled up and ready. While she waited, she tried formulating the final look based on what evidence she'd seen.

What she got, however, was an absolute whole other thing. Her boy stood there, refusing to get in front of the mirror, dressed head to toe in solid black. Vest, jacket, trousers, and shirt all, but in his breast pocket was a splash of vibrant purple silk. The tailor walked over with a good natured shake of the head, and unbuttoned the top button on the shirt, before stepping back. Summer weddings on the French Riviera required no tie as far as he was concerned.

Deke could see the reaction on Barbara's face. She pulled her glasses down again, this time not to flirt. Her vibrant blue eyes were opened wide while she mouthed a silent wow. Quickly, she brought her phone up and snapped several pictures, instructing him to turn this way and that.

The Hugo Boss employees just sat back, quite accustomed to such behavior. The younger employee held up her hand in a fist, the older gentleman giving proper knucks with an austere explosion thereof.

Barbara dashed off a quick text before she let him look at himself. He was still totally unaware of his full appearance, and could only rely on her behavior to tell him he looked appropriate. The shoes might be his favorite part. They were a double strap affair with both shiny and textured leather, giving them a very interesting look.

"Go ahead babe, take a look." Barbara said, finally gesturing towards the mirrors. Deke stepped up and turned, not recognizing himself at all. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of eyeglasses. He'd requested Fractal give him those instead of a set of contacts, largely due to personal comfort. He'd pocketed them when he changed into the tux, since he'd need to see how the whole thing looked.

Once they were on, he really took the time to inspect the tailor's work. While he still felt more at ease in boots and jeans, he was satisfied that he could, if necessary, clean himself up. In the mirror, he could see Barbara walk up from behind, putting her hand on his back. "You once asked me what I saw in you. This is your answer. I've always seen this."

Deke blushed again, but refused to default to his shyness. "Thank you Babs."

"You're welcome my lovely." She said to him and let him step down. She took a few more pictures and then turned to the saleswoman who'd been assisting the tailor.

"Cufflinks are handled, but we'll take all of this." Barbara said, fishing for the credit card. She handed it to the saleswoman, who began setting up the purchases. "When can we get the jacket back?"

"This evening, any time after seven." The tailor said. "One of the running backs for the Giants had gotten some tailoring on that coat done, but never returned for it. I was beginning to think we'd never actually sell that particular coat, but your gentleman was extremely close in size. It won't take any time at all."

Below them, the bell to the door rang, and Cassie was already dashing up the stairs. She stopped abruptly and gave a look at her friend decked in the tux, and then looked at Barbara. "Ok, yeah, I get it now." She said cryptically.

Shortly thereafter, Godiva walked up the steps and also paused, gave a glance, and then walked over to Barbara, whispering something into her ear. Again, Barbara gave her a sour look and shook her head. "No."

"Just once?"

"I know eleven ways to ruin you, just off the top of my head."

"I don't even wanna know." Cassie said, walking over to Deke as he fiddled about in the outfit, trying figure out how to be comfortable in it.

"Me either." He said honestly. He'd long since given up trying to figure his teammate out, and even his guesses were disturbing enough, but probably nowhere near what was actually going on. To avoid the problem, he snuck into the dressing room to change back into his street clothes, carefully removing the tuxedo and sundry.

The saleswoman saved Godiva from a terrible fate, approaching Barbara with the tablet she'd tallied the expenses on. Barbara looked them over, happy Oliver Queen was footing the bill for the team to get outfitted for their part in this. When she handed the saleswoman the credit card, she had to suppress a grimace as the almost three thousand dollar tab showed up on screen. She'd asked the saleswoman to add something else to the list as well, for a surprise, which she was planning on giving him when they returned for the finished jacket.

"So, our turn, right?" Cassie asked. She wasn't as excited as Barbara, or worse, Godiva, who'd spent their whole time wandering the other shops nearby talking incessantly about it, but she was excited. It wasn't so much getting a new dress (that she'd most likely wear once or twice more before she outgrew it) as it was just trying on new things.

"Yes it is." Barbara said, waiting by the dressing room door on her boy.


	14. Chapter 14

July 18th  
Manhattan, New York City  
1430 EST

The four heroes decided to walk the couple of miles from the Boss store to Saks, taking time out to check out the Empire State building, which happened right along their path. Cassie also nosed around the campus of NYU for a while. She still had a few years, but she seemed so excited to get to attend classes there. So excited, in fact, Barbara and Godiva had to physically drag her off the campus before she wound up getting lost.

When they finally arrived at the high end women's clothing store, it was all Deke could do to keep up with them. It was rare that his girl actually acted traditionally 'girly' so when the moment hit her, he wasn't about to get in the way, instead just keeping with them and keeping quiet.

As he walked, he mulled over another moment of Barbara intentionally keeping the price of something from him. At first, he'd been annoyed, and had nearly said something once they'd left the Boss store, but he kept himself in check. The walk gave him some clarity on the matter. It wasn't his money she was spending. It wasn't even hers this time, but the money of someone on the League who'd donated it to their mission. If she ever did it with his money, something he was certain she wouldn't do, but if she did, he'd say something then. Until that moment happened, he'd just let it go.

Up ahead, Godiva leaned over towards Barbara, the redhead immediately prepping another sour look. "You're gonna runway for him, right?" Godiva asked.

"Runway?" Cassie asked, unfamiliar with the term. If this was more sex stuff she had no desire to hear it.

"You try on way more than you plan on buying, to show off a little bit." Godiva explained. "It's fun, and it's a cheap way to find out what your lov… uhm, crush finds sex... er, attractive on you."

Barbara thought about that for a moment. She hadn't planned on it here, but there was no reason not to. "Hell with it, yes I am." She said, immediately selecting some dresses she'd passed by.

"Plus," Godiva said conspiratorially to Cassie. "It gives us more time. Everyone wins."

The girls gathered an employee, and began burying her in dresses and shoes to take to the dressing area. Deke just followed along, not really able to keep up with what was going on. He'd been developing a headache after the perfume snipers had done their work with his companions, and he was now trying to work through it.

Mercifully, Barbara sat him down just outside the dressing area, and told him to wait there on them. While he sat there, he noticed someone stepping out of one of the dressing rooms, fighting with a dress she'd chosen. He could feel disappointment and unhappiness coming off of the brunette woman in waves as she looked down at herself. No, that wouldn't do.

"Excuse me, I ain't trying to be creepy or anything, but that looks nice on you." He said offhandedly to her.

The dark haired woman stopped and looked at him. Her boobs didn't fit right and her hips were compressed like a sausage. Was he blind or something? "Is this a joke?" She asked, annoyed.

"No ma'am, I just think you look very nice and I thought I'd mention it." Deke said. He wasn't lying to her, the soft gold color of the dress worked with her hair and skin color, and yeah, living with Godiva and Daeva was definitely rubbing off on him. "It's a good color for you."

The woman was going to say something scathing, until she stood up tall and smoothed the dress out. She could work with it. "Is this how you pick up women?" She finally asked after a moment. "Sitting out front of the dressing rooms?"

Deke blushed and shook his head. "No ma'am, my girlfriend's in there with my sister and roommate."

"I hope your phone's charged." The woman said, heading back in to get changed back into her street clothes. Her emotional state was much more positive, hopeful even. His work was done.

The woman came back out, bid him a polite goodbye, and left him sitting there. True to what she said, he spent quite a while playing puzzle games on his phone.

Inside, Barbara, Cassie, and Godiva were mulling over their choices. Cassie held up a very tiny red number that Barbara immediately took out of her hands and set aside. "What was wrong with that one?"

"Beyond the fact you're not even fifteen yet?" Barbara said, holding the dress up to point out the extremely deep neckline and the very short hem. "Your mother and your 'Aunt' would kill us for letting you go somewhere in something like this."

"I want to look hot too!" Cassie said with a frown. She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at the other women. She was a damn demigoddess, a Greek demigoddess at that. It was her birthright to turn heads and drop jaws.

"You mind?" Godiva asked Barbara. When the redhead gave her a 'go for it' gesture, Godiva continued. "There's three competing schools. The first, and most common, is like our friend here." She said, gesturing towards Barbara, who had gone behind a privacy door to shimmy into a dress.

"You pick things that accentuate what you like about yourself, but leave enough to the imagination. She's got incredible boobs, so something with a low neckline works. Her legs are killer too, so it should have a slit, but a long skirt would help keep some mystery and respectability." Godiva explained. Behind the privacy door, Barbara blushed red as she inspected herself in the mirror, taking a moment to push the girls into place.

"The second school, more my style, is just put it all on display and don't give a damn what anyone says or thinks. You get the attention, but you don't generally want all that attention that you'll get either." Godiva explained, holding the dress Cassie had chosen up against her own body. "I can get away wearing this, because I don't mind being distracting, and I don't care what people call me."

"I don't either." Cassie said, already going through her selections and weeding out the more revealing ones.

"Good for you, keep that up. Still doesn't excuse the fact that no matter how hot you look, you still look your age, meaning it's going to be a bunch of pedos looking at you, and a bunch of guys who refuse to look at you at all because they feel weird. Either way, we can't do what we're going there to do. "

"The third school, that's what you want. Pick one thing about you that you're perfectly okay putting on display, and don't say butt or boobs either, that's what prom is for. Keep everyone guessing."

Cassie frowned and stepped into one of the booths. She undressed to her underwear and looked in the mirror. She had muscle tone to make most action stars jealous, and she'd recently talked her mother into letting her get her navel pierced. (the effort _that_ had required warranted a made for tv movie.) On the other hand, that would be the expected approach. "Okay, fine." She groused, still not particularly pleased.

Barbara handed a couple of dresses over the door to her, and then checked herself out once more. Her hair was still in a ponytail, and her makeup was more suited to a day out, not a formal event, but for the moment, she was as good as she'd get.

"You look bangin' chick." Godiva said, setting yet another dress aside that didn't have enough clearance for her bust, on the wrong side of the fine line between advertisement and discomfort.

"Thank you." Barbara said, and stepped out of the dressing room. Deke was sitting there, playing on his phone, so she cleared her throat. When he looked up at her, he dropped his phone into his lap. She stood there in a long strapless dress. The material was black, but it shimmered deep violet in the light. The dress plunged in the front, just enough to reveal the upper curves of her breasts, while the side was slit to her hip. She'd definitely be wearing some insubstantial underwear, if she could even find any which she could wear beneath this dress.

"Holy. Damn." Deke said, bringing a blush to her face. She could read volumes on him, the way he looked at her. It wasn't hungry, it was pure awestruck. He glanced around to make sure they were alone, and then spoke up. "Are you sure you aren't the demigoddess?"

Barbara went bashful at that one, feeling like a little girl for a moment. She wished more of her friends could feel this kind of appreciated. She gave a quick twirl on her toes and smoothed the dress out over her hips. "So, you like?"

"Yes ma'am." Deke said, still not taking his eyes off of her.

"I've got some others to try on, just in case. Do you mind?" she asked in a coquettish tone, batting eyes at him. She knew what she was doing of course, and she enjoyed it.

"You go right on ahead and don't mind me." He said, and watched her turn to walk back in, feeling a bit guilty he was staring at her bottom the whole time.

When she walked in, she saw Cassie in a much more appropriate dress. Godiva, who was still in her underwear (the term only applicable if one was being generous), was fussing over the young girl, adjusting the red dress until it sat properly on her.

"Okay, how's she look?" Godiva asked Barbara, pointedly looking at the redhead in the face. She made no attempt to conceal her attraction to both men and women, and at the moment, she was jealous of the boy outside.

"Beautiful." Barbara said in a genuine tone. She walked around and inspected the dress from all angles, and while it might still not make Dr. Sandsmark happy, Barbara was convinced they wouldn't do much better for her.

"I do good work." Godiva said, digging through the rack of dresses, convinced one of them would work without heavy alteration.

Cassie stepped outside as well, figuring a third opinion wouldn't hurt. She knew Deke wouldn't lie to her either, so she felt like it was worth it. When she stepped outside, he had the presence of mind to set his phone down. Cassie had apparently only gone with red dresses, this one floor length with gold accents. It was also strapless, but connected to a choker collar and exposed only her shoulders and arms. When she turned, he saw the back was cut extremely low, coming to a point at the small of her back.

"You look really really nice Cass." He said, already running through plans on how best to back an unwanted suitor off of her. "I think you made the choice."

"Thank you." She said with a sweet smile, and wandered back into the dressing room. Barbara was already into another one and met her halfway.

"Told you." Barbara said with a wink.

She went in and out of the dressing room several times, each time in a new getup. Black cocktail dress with a neckline that ended at her belly button, skin tight green sheath dress, purple and blue mermaid dress, and many others, one of which was the little red getup Cassie had chosen. She'd strolled out in that one and her boy had nearly choked on his own tongue at the sight of her in something so provocative. Cassie, having gotten finished earlier than the other two, had joined him sitting there, occasionally catcalling her friend.

One her way back in from that one, she took a look at the price tag, and set it off to the side. It was marked way down; she'd buy it with her own money. It was worth it just to see his face when she surprised him with it.

On her last trip, this time in a very simple, but extremely flattering slinky black number, she saw Godiva finally in a dress that seemed to suit her. She'd grabbed a black mermaid style, which had ample room for her assets. She was still threatening to spill out of it, but less so than the rest.

"I don't care what he thinks." Godiva said offhandedly. "He turned me down."

"There's a reason for that." Barbara said primly as she got her own clothes back on. She was going to have to get some new underwear for that dress, there was no two ways around it. "You do look hot though."

"Thank you." Godiva said politely, restraining herself from saying more. Batgirl wouldn't be her first unrequited crush. She wouldn't be her last either. Besides, Batgirl had called her hot. She could live happy with that.


	15. Chapter 15

July 18th  
Manhattan, New York City  
1700 EST

Once all the girls had exited the dressing room, Barbara had hauled them off towards the lingerie department. Deke had set to follow them, but Babs had suggested he might be less bored nosing around the men's section while they handled the last of their business here.

There had of course been more protests from Cassie, who seemed to beeline to the trashiest things they had in the place. Again, the older girls had taken the time to help her, steering her towards some things which were just as flattering, and a lot less porn actress. The final argument, given by Barbara, was simply asking Cassie what her mother would think if she found these items in the laundry.

That had been enough for her. She still made some rather risqué choices, worrying Barbara that she had someone in mind to wear them for, but Cassie had gone with much more demure garments than she originally planned. Godiva, however, vowed to bring the girl with her every time she wanted to buy new clothes. While she had backed Barbara up on trying to convince Cassie not to dress so provocatively, she also realized the girl was good for spotting fun things.

Barbara had taken the longest to pick things out, having that extremely high slit to contend with. She found some beautiful black stockings though, which paired well, and had finally settled on a rather insubstantial g-string to wear under her dress, also coming to the conclusion that her underwear drawer needed some updating before long. The dress she'd selected had cups built in, which had fortunately spared her that expense.

Cassie and Godiva were already picking out shoes by the time Barbara had arrived, which was just as well. Barbara wasn't a shoe girl, so she went with some extremely simple strappy black heels. They were tall, but she had extremely good balance, they'd give her no trouble.

Fortunately for Cassie, Godiva _was_ a shoe girl. It took her no time whatsoever to find a pair which would match well with her dress, even showing her how to buy with a budget in mind. (Barbara pretended not to pay attention to that particular lesson.) It might have taken them another hour and a half, but they managed to get their shopping concluded.

While Barbara was paying the almost seven thousand dollar bill, Cassie had sought Deke out, who was just wandering aimlessly through the men's department, having no earthly clue what the hell he was doing. She drug him through the store to the doors, where Barbara and Godiva were waiting. Once there, they all wandered out into the city, first seeking food, before heading back to the Boss store to pick up Deke's tuxedo.

They settled on a burger joint around the corner from the Boss store. After their meal, Deke picked up his tux, and the lot of them hailed another cab back to the concealed Zeta transporter. "We're heading out of Mount Justice tomorrow." Barbara said, once satisfied they weren't being observed. "So we're all staying there tonight. We're probably late to the party there too."

"We're having a party?" Godiva asked. This was news to her. She looked quite hopeful about the whole thing.

"Figure of speech this time, at least as far as I know. We've got several squads working tonight so the rest of us can follow this lead." Barbara said, letting Cassie get recognized first.

* * *

"Recognize Godiva E Zero Four. Recognize Batgirl Bee One Six. Recognize Mustang E Zero Three."

Mal Duncan gave a nod in greeting towards the arriving heroes, before turning back to continue his work. He was in the process of field guiding Blue Beetle, Robin, and Beast Boy while they took down some illegal arms smugglers.

"They need a hand?" Deke asked, walking up to Mal and looking over his shoulder.

"No, they've got this handled." Mal said. "You got other things to do anyway."

"Mission prep." Barbara said, gesturing towards the conference room that saw almost zero use in the place. They wandered that direction, and found everyone else sitting around the table. There were a few boxes on the table as well, which Nightwing was looking through, setting things out.

Fractal wasted no time, diving into the briefing. "I'll make this quick. The Flash has shared his compression technology with me, so I've been able to fabricate costumes for everyone. They're a nanoweave polymer, extremely light, and flexible, but much less durable. They'll be contained within the jewelry I've got laid out."

Several jewelry boxes were laid out, each labeled with a name. "In addition, you'll find contact lens cases for Alpha and Gamma, except for Mustang and Daeva, who requested glasses. I thank you for that by the way. It allowed me time to finish the fabrication on everyone's costumes."

Nightwing took over the briefing at this point. "We head into France in a few hours, to get there in the morning. Batgirl, your team will need time to get ready, so I've secured a room in the hotel. Standard alias for you, with your team listed as guests. I'll need aliases for you all eventually by the way, so try to come up with something."

"Superboy, I've hacked the hotel's personnel files for Gamma and forged employee ID's. You're all listed as students with travel and work visas, so don't worry about trying to blend in, just do whatever they ask and slip away when you can."

"Beta will cover the actual breaking and entering in this mission. Miss M will handle keeping us in communication. Mustang, if necessary, can you pick up for her if she gets too occupied?"

"Probably, but can we not let it come to that?" Deke said, still not comfortable enough with his skills to link that many people for communication.

"That's the plan. Superboy, your show." Nightwing said, handing the floor over.

"We're doing the grunt work on this. We could get Daeva into guest hospitality for the event, so she'll be around the ballroom area. Koa and I are in maintenance, so we should have run of the rest of the place. Like Nightwing said, we just blend in. We were able to get work clothes fabricated too, these things are in everyone's rooms. That's all for me. Batgirl?"

"We're going in with Queen Perdita's retinue. I'm posing as a cybersecurity expert for her, Mustang as traditional security. Godiva and Wondergirl, you two will have the easy job. Vlatavan nobility wound up getting jumbled a few years ago after Count Vertigo's botched attempt at a coup, leaving even that nation's scholars unsure who's actually still carrying title. Queen Perdita has agreed to let you pose as a pair of court Baronesses for this venture, so you just have to enjoy the party and be charming."

"Done." Godiva said, offering Cassie a fist for bumping.

"Ok, we're done." Nightwing said, standing up. The rest of the team joined suit, and they left the briefing room.

For the next few hours, the teams mingled, getting some exercise and more combat training in. A surprise to nobody, the new team lagged behind in that regard, though Koa comported himself well enough. A lifetime of practicing a little known martial art will do that for a guy though.

Deke spent a while with M'gann, trading off responsibilities with her. She helping him sharpen his telepathic abilities, he helping her hone her telekinetic ones. While they worked, they conversed silently about little things, catching up for the most part. This was interrupted however by L'gann, who seemed interested in stealing her away. Superboy pointedly ignored them, going back to his own workout.

* * *

July 19th  
Monaco, France  
0900 CEST

The French Riviera was one of the most beautiful places Deke had seen. It was all clear skies, perfect temperature, and incredible scenery. That he was there with the woman he loved was even better. "I've never been out of the US before." He said as they walked down the Avenue d'Ostende, taking in the scenery. Barbara wanted to map the layout of the city around the hotel, and had used it as an excuse to spend a couple of hours with her boy.

"There's not many places better to go first." She said to him as she walked along, holding his hand. "Look at that building, what do you see?" She asked him, pointing out a building with classic Mediterranean multi-level architecture . He didn't speak any French, but the sign was easy enough to decipher. It was a Cardiothoracic center.

"The roof is low enough to get onto from the back, and there's enough features for someone to get lost up there when it's dark outside. Looks like a good angle from the hotel for a zip line escape." He said, puzzling it all out.

"I'll take it." She said, snuggling up close to him. "I love you Cowboy."

"I love you too Babs."

They kept this up for a few blocks, doing the tourist thing by taking lots of pictures. Mostly this was Barbara, as Deke couldn't even begin to operate the DSLR camera she'd brought along. At one point, as they took a moment to observe the Mediterranean, another couple, much older, offered to get a picture for them.

"I want a copy." Deke said to her after the older couple walked off. He was looking at the image in the back of the camera and was really pleased by what he saw.

"Well yeah." Barbara said. "I'll print a couple of copies tomorrow. We need to get back though. I let Godiva and Cassie talk me into getting waxed, so wish me luck."

Several blocks away, the old couple stopped and ducked into an alley. The old man pulled at his throat, yanking the mask off his face. Jason watched as Ravager did the same, the both of them tossing their disguises into a dumpster. "I told you they'd be here." He said. "I didn't expect _her_ though."

"Old flame?" Ravager asked with a sneer to her voice. "Childhood crush?"

"No." Jason lied. "If she's here, then my old predecessor is too. I didn't account for it, but I think this will work in our favor. Did you get their SD card copied?"

"Of course I did." Ravager said, holding up a small wireless device.

"We'll upload their surveillance then, I'm sure they caught something we didn't." Jason said in a foul tone. The last time he'd seen Babs, she'd barely figured out which way to put the cowl on. She'd agreed to a date with him, but hadn't been so big on the follow up. They were both kids then, and time had given him the perspective to realize he was too pushy at that age, but he couldn't so easily shake his feelings.

Ravager didn't miss his introspective moment. He might have standards on who to kill, but she didn't. If he compromised this job because of old feelings, she'd make sure that it didn't become a problem. She followed Jason out of the blind alleyway, and headed further from the Hotel Hermitage, already certain she had a few ways to make the redhead die quickly.

When they got back to their hotel, Ravager uploaded the surveillance photos that Barbara had taken, and the four of them began going through them. Quickly, an idea sprang to Jason's mind. "Okay, this is how we play this." He began, and broke the whole thing down.

* * *

"I may yet kill you." Barbara said to Godiva with an unhappy look as she walked into the hotel.

"Wait till he touches you though." Godiva replied with a wink.

Cassie just made a face at the two of them. She'd gotten her legs done, but it wasn't hard to guess what else the older women had gotten taken care of, if Barbara's gait was any indication. It was a rare moment she was pleased with her very awkward age. Besides, it served Babs right for being such a mother hen. She was only four years older than her.

The girls chattered as they rode the elevator up, exiting onto their floor. Nightwing had secured them a two room suite, which they'd split down the middle, Cassie and Godiva on one side, Deke and Barbara on the other. When they walked in, the room was empty but the shower could be heard running.

"I'll go tell him we're back." Barbara said which caused Cassie to make another face. She knew well and good that they were doing it. When Barbara saw her expression, she gave the younger girl a look. "Really? Do you think that's all we do? Just crack jokes and practice making babies? There's way more to it than that, so please get your head out of the gutter before the stains can't come out."

Cassie, too mollified to answer, just opened the room service menu and pretended she didn't say anything at all. Godiva sat down next to her once Barbara had left the room. "Tell anyone I said this and I will deny to my dying breath, but she's right. You don't just skip straight from ice cream to the bedroom."

"I know that." Cassie said with a frown, perhaps a bit too quickly.

"Then give your friend and my teammate some credit. Love is more than just hopping in to bed." Godiva said, hating having to bring this tone out. Cassie had said her mom wasn't around a lot, so Godiva had to guess everything the girl knew came from the other capes she spent time around.

"You hit on both of them all the time though." Cassie pointed out, still trying to hide in the room service menu. "You hit on Batgirl when you were getting your hoohah's waxed."

"Yes, and I will continue to do so until they either agree or I die, but that's me. I figured out who I was when I was your age, and I have no regrets, but, don't be me. Be you, and make sure you trust the people you're looking up to."

Cassie mulled that over for a while. Godiva left her alone to do so, and busied herself setting up the things she'd need to do her hair and makeup. There was no way in hell she was going to pay some overpriced French salon to do what she was more than capable of doing on her own. Besides, she'd invested heavily in cosmetics when she'd made her living on a pole, they needed some use.


	16. Chapter 16

July 19th  
Monaco, France  
1500 CEST

The shower was bigger than his bedroom, Deke was convinced of it. He could stand in the center of the shower, hold his arms out, and not touch the wall. How people could be so used to this and not notice it was beyond him. He was going to take advantage of the car wash these people called a shower though.

He'd spent quite a while in there already, and had shown no sign of getting out any time soon. In fact, when Barbara walked in on him, he was laying on the floor of the shower stall, just letting the multiple jets hit him all over the body.

"Am I interrupting?" Barbara giggled. She wanted to climb in with him, the hot water and her boy, soaking wet and nude, was quite inviting, but she'd just scolded Cassie, and she wasn't about to be a hypocrite.

"Oh shit!" Deke said, surprised. The girl was a hundred percent ninja. That's all there was to it. He tried a few times to get up to his feet, constantly slipping, until he managed to make it to a vertical position. "Hi beautiful!"

Barbara just kept giggling at him. If he'd hurt himself, she'd stop, but for now, it was too funny. "Are you okay?" She asked after a moment.

Deke, redfaced and embarrassed at himself, just stood there, leaning against the wall of the shower like nothing was wrong. "Perfectly fine, why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason. Just wanted to let you know we're back. Do you want me to bring you some clothes?" Barbara asked. She knew that he'd had to have gotten over a lot of his shyness with the single co-ed locker room his team had to use, but she doubted he'd be okay parading around Cassie in a towel.

"Yes please." Deke said, still quite red in the face and not doing so well at the nonchalance. He finally cut the water off and shook his hair out "How'd your uh, your waxing go?"

Barbara just walked over to the shower door, opened it up, and gave her boy an inviting raise of her eyebrow. "Come and find out." She said. "But don't get too excited, we've got too much to do."

Deke wasn't about to have to be asked twice. He walked towards her, knelt down, and ran his hand up her leg. Her skin was pure silk to begin with; this was a whole other thing. Barbara rolled the front of her skirt up as well, so Deke let his hand wander up the inside of her thigh before brushing up against her sex. When she said nothing to stop him, he slipped his hand inside her panties and stroked the front of her mound, feeling that same silky smoothness. She'd also gone completely bare, which was new for her.

She'd said not to get too excited though, and he was already beginning to react, so he withdrew his hand. "Later?" He asked.

"Yes my lovely." Barbara said, inwardly appreciating his decision not to tease her. She'd been feeling rather naughty once the surface pain had subsided. If he'd gone too far, putting the brakes on it would have been miserable. She consoled herself with the knowledge that half the fun of buying the dress she'd purchased, was getting to see him take it off of her, but that of course required she wear it first.

Barbara kissed her boy on the nose, and left the bathroom, heading to the room they shared. She grabbed him some clothes and handed them over, before she joined Cassie and Godiva for their preparations.

Because they'd gotten waxed, the longest part of their grooming was already finished, so they were able to shower very efficiently. Decked out in hotel bathrobes, the three women began work on their hair. None of them opted for anything extravagant, Godiva going the furthest with some very large curlers to add some loose coils.

Deke stopped watching when they got to makeup, all of it too foreign to comprehend. Instead, he shifted his perceptions and watched their thought processes as they went about their tasks. Barbara, of course, worked like a computer, moving from task to task, weighing options, making selections, and moving on in an analytical manner. Her thoughts were green and quick, and functioned like a spider on a web. Cassie's mind worked on a much more broad principle. She looked at every option, dropped whatever she didn't like, reexamined, and adjusted as necessary, occasionally dipping into what she'd eschewed to approach from another angle. Godiva worked in moments, and thought in pictures. Each choice she had, she laid out before her and considered how it would play out, like short films. When she found something she liked, she went for it.

"Uhm, what's he doing?" Cassie asked, pointing at him. His face was distant, eyes unfocused.

"Maybe talking to M'gann." Barbara said with a shrug. When he reached for the hotel stationary and pen, she reconsidered that theory. He'd begun drawing what looked like the lovechild of circuitry patterns and crop circles. "Or not. Cowboy, are we that boring?"

"Making my masterpiece." He said, his voice far away, still making furious strokes with the pen.

"Don't quit your day job." Godiva said sarcastically, applying eyeshadow.

When they were finished, Deke put the paper down and readjusted his perceptions back to the normal. Cassie and Godiva had gone to their shared room to change, and he left Barbara alone to change in theirs. On a whim, he picked up Barbara's DSLR camera, set the controls to automatic, and waited.

Cassie exited first, to see him sitting on the small sofa. When she noticed the camera, she stepped off to the side and threw a couple of quick poses, a few flirty ones and a several silly ones. She finally took one very simple pose, which she decided to send to her mother.

When Godiva exited next, she just stood there, faked a smile, and left it at that. "Cameras and I have a long and troubled past." Is all she said. Neither Deke nor Cassie pressed it any further.

Finally, Barbara came out of the room, having had a hell of a time fighting with the built in cups of her dress. When she saw her boy with her camera, she shook her head, calling him silly, but played along, being very flirty with him. While she wouldn't pose, Godiva was apparently perfectly okay egging Barbara on, telling her things like "Make love to the camera." And "Now, give me arrogance."

Barbara showed them the tip of her tongue, and began passing out the jewelry that Fractal had made for them. Each piece was part of a greater whole, designed to receive input, process, and transmit the data, all powered by bioelectricity. Also, he was apparently very conscious of design. Each piece, in addition to being functional, was really attractive.

Cassie put on a gold ring, and a ruby pendant and diadem, which rested against her forehead and sparkled beautifully. Godiva laughed, hard. She withdrew a strand from the box she'd been handed and put it around her neck, cracking up at being given a pearl necklace. This was paired with some pearl earrings, but who cared about that? Cassie was quite certain she didn't get the joke, while Barbara and Deke snickered.

Speaking of Barbara, the box she opened contained a matched set of black sapphire earrings and pendant on gold chains. When she slipped them on to complete the outfit, Deke snapped a couple more pictures. "Damn." He said, shaking his head. He knew better than to say what he was thinking, but he was certain he was going to make them look bad.

Deke had to set the camera down though. It was time for him to get dressed. Barbara had thoughtfully sat his tuxedo out for him while she had been in the room changing. He wondered for the millionth time what he'd done to deserve her as he changed, first ditching his clothing, and then pulling the pieces of the tux on. Beneath the jacket lay a small green box, labeled with the same brand as the designer of his suit. Opening it, he discovered a bottle of cologne. With a shrug, he set it aside, grabbed a brush, and ran it through his dishwater blonde hair.

He settled on a half tail, which was becoming his go-to hairstyle for more important things. Once that was done, he used a few spritzes of cologne, put on the glasses, watch, and cufflinks Fractal had provided for him, and he exited the room.

Barbara had her camera handy, and gave back as good as she'd taken, making her boy pose for several photos. All the while, Godiva was complaining.

"It is not fair. How in the hell does it take us hours of hair and makeup, and they do this in five minutes?" She said with a frown.

Barbara just gave a winning smile, standing up to adjust her boy's collar and jacket. "You look good Cowboy." She said, placing a soft kiss on his cheek, trying to avoid smearing her lipstick. She'd opted for darker colors to highlight her bright blue eyes and pale skin, the effect making her look even more dangerous than usual. "I see you found the cologne?"

"I did, thank you. You look amazing." He said, fighting his hormones back, the desire to take her then and there was powerful. The greatest help in this endeavor was Cassie, who was making a gagging sound at the two of them.

"We're upsetting the natives." Barbara said wryly.

* * *

The four of them walked into the ballroom with Perdita and the rest of her sizable retinue. The door security paid them no mind, so the four heroes were able to mingle without issue. [Ok, we're all linked, right?] Deke said telepathically. He wasn't yet one hundred percent confident in his ability to use his brain as a switchboard for a giant telepathic conference call. How M'gann could just do this on a lark was beyond him.

[I'm here.] Came from Barbara. She was currently mingling about, chatting with some of the other guests. As she'd been introduced as a cybersecurity expert, it gave her plenty of opportunity to meet people who'd want to try and steal her away from her employer.

[Present.] Cassie said, flirting with the son of an Italian businessman, who just had to introduce her to his whole squad. This gave her the same kinds of opportunity that Barbara had, allowing the facial recognition software to identify more people.

[Can I think in pictures through this?] Godiva asked as she found herself a perfect spot to be noticed, allowing people to come to her, and arrive they did. She was swarmed in moments, just the way she liked it.

[No, thank God.] Deke replied as he hovered near the Queen.

[Okay, the full link's up.] M'gann's voice carried across the link. She took over the duties of switchboard, which was an absolute relief to Deke. It allowed him to mill about a little more, though his job wasn't to be friendly, so it was more about silent observation. He took the opportunity to take a cracker from one of the servers. It was covered in something like black tapioca pudding.

With a shrug, he ate it, and decided he didn't hate it. He had no idea what it was, but the second and third time a server came around with a tray of them, he nabbed another one.

[Got someone.] he heard across the link, Cassie's voice. She was looking at a woman in a windowed Chinese cut dress. This woman's black hair was kept up with chopsticks, and through the windows of her dress, a very epic looking dragon tattoo which covered much of her body could be seen.

[Roulette.] Barbara said. [She's dangerous, be careful around her.]

* * *

[That's an understatement.] Nightwing said from beneath the hotel. He was busy helping Fractal patch into the utility lines. Once done, Nightwing fired up his wrist computer, and began the process of bypassing the security systems.

"I need one of those." Fractal said with a jealous tone. He was perfectly content to be in access tunnels. The idea of a big formal event did nothing for him at all. "Can I inspect it later?"

"I'll give you the schematics." Nightwing said, taking a cable that Fractal offered, plugging it into his gauntlet. He frowned almost immediately. "This is taking too long."

"The wiring looked old." Fractal said. "Probably impedance in the line."

"Maybe." [Gamma, what's the word?]

* * *

[Upper floors match layouts, nothing special to note.] Superboy said as he set about the task of performing 'maintenance' on some of the hallway light fixtures.

[Lower levels look the same.] Koa said in follow up. [None of the gear is going off.]

[There's a lot of security in the kitchen. The cook staff doesn't look too pleased about it either.] Daeva said as she swapped an empty try for a full one, only to head back out onto the floor. She'd been given very particular instructions on what paths to follow, which left her getting bored quickly.

* * *

Beta squad, having finally cracked the hotel's first layer of security, moved in. M'gann would phase through walls to peek ahead for her squad's safety, and had been making a beeline to the hotel's server room.

It only took one gas pellet to get into the first objective for Beta. While Nightwing and Miss Martian pulled the sleeping guards into the room, Fractal set about linking their computer equipment with the servers, allowing them unfettered access to all parts of the hotel.

Nightwing plugged in again and began working his mojo. In a few short moments, he'd disabled the second layer of security, looping over a terabyte of video to the camera feeds, stolen from the camera's DVR's. This gave a more organic flow to the feeds to the security personnel actually watching the cameras. Too much nothing could alert them, but days of people milling about would set the security at false ease.

* * *

[We've got someone else.] Deke said. His glasses had pinged on Willem Van Olsten, a major name in the diamond market. [Confirm we've got players here.]

[I see him.] Barbara said, and made her way in a roundabout manner towards him. [I'm going to talk to him, see if I can get anything out of him.]

[I've got a few others. Low level according to the facial rec.] Godiva said as she entertained several people. [I'll keep them occupied.]

Deke watched his girlfriend saunter over to the Van Olsten guy, and bit back his annoyance at watching her flirt. At first, he was pleased to see the man trying to brush Barbara off politely, but it dawned on him that him doing so meant he was less occupied, more focused on whatever his plans were.

When Roulette cut into the conversation, none too politely indicating to Barbara that she should scram, it was obvious what kind of business was going down.

* * *

[Roulette confirms something's happening tonight.] Nightwing said as he and Beta slipped into the vault room. They'd pulled the schematics from the security servers, and knew exactly what they were dealing with. M'gann went in first, phasing through the vault door. She had to remain insubstantial while inside, but her mission was to look, not touch.

[Several cases in here.] She said, and waited as Fractal and Nightwing picked the vault's locks, tag teaming it through electronic and nanopathic means. It took them several minutes given the advanced nature of the vault, but finally, they got the door opened and the internal security bypassed.

"Let's see what we've got." Nightwing said, and opened the case.

[We've got problems.] He told the team, showing M'gann and Fractal a case designed to hold diamonds. A very empty case. [Alpha, Gamma, pull out and get changed. Something's been bothering me and I think it's about to go down.]


	17. Chapter 17

July 19th  
Monaco, France  
2130 CEST

[Daeva, guide us please.] Deke said. In her cover as a server for the event, she'd gotten plenty of chances to spot private, out of the way places.

[Batgirl, there's a service corridor behind you. The supply closet is unlocked. Mustang, up the stairs to your left is a large mezzanine. There's an audio booth not being used. Godiva, you and Wondergirl aren't far from the elevators, that should provide you enough time to get changed.] Daeva said, already heading back to the kitchen. She took a sharp turn once out of the ballroom, and darted down the hallway past the kitchen and towards the service elevators.

Once within, she hit the door close button and triggered the concealed switch on her belt. She undressed to her underwear quickly, and twisted the ring she wore on her right hand. Immediately, the nanopolymer material compressed within began flowing out, enveloping her body in a few short seconds, leaving her in a slightly uncomfortable version of her costume once the material had resolved itself.

Elsewhere in the hotel, the rest of Alpha and Gamma did the same, with Koa and Superboy just using their master keys to borrow empty hotel rooms. Deke had undressed carefully, intent on keeping his tuxedo, folding it and laying it on a chair in the audio room. Barbara had done the same, hiding her dress within the ceiling. She didn't waste time removing her stockings, but she did ditch the jewelry.

Cassie and Godiva, using an elevator, didn't have that chance, just shucking their clothes and triggering their costumes, figuring they could recover them later.

[We're almost there.] M'gann said over the link.

It wasn't quick enough though. "Ladies and Gentlemen! I just want to say thank you and merci beaucoup for your donations!" A man in a red metal helmet shouted, gesturing with a pair of Mac-10's. "Now, if you'd all be so kind as to drop your jewelry and wallets, we'll be on our way!"

He, and two women, one a small and lean with black hair, the other positively diesel with green hair, began moving through the crowd, collecting.

* * *

 **Several minutes earlier**

"I told you, they'd do all of it for us. That little speed bump we left in the security system bought us all the time we needed." Jason said to Scandal as they waited outside the vault. The moment his cell phone pinged, alerting them that the system was being cracked, he initiated the program, forcing a spoofed feed down the lines, thanks to the piggybacks Scandal had installed when they thought they'd have to do this all by themselves.

Scandal just shook her head. The boy was smug most days, and after this, there'd be no living with him. She set about breaking the vault, using some very advanced tech to do so. "This makes our escape a lot harder." She said with a frown, the electronics telling her when she'd set the tumblers in place on the manual lock.

"So, we make a show of it, give them something to tangle themselves up on. You think Ravager was only planting mapping nodes?" Jason said as he kept simultaneous watch on Beta's hacking progress and the hallways.

"Of course I didn't." Came quietly over the radio, Ravager's voice a staticky buzz. "I've made Batgirl, and I think that's Wondergirl too. They came in with Perdita's retinue."

"Keep it up _Roulette_." Jason said with a smirk. He'd paid a fortune for the mask and prosthetics to transform Ravager into the criminal boss, and it had been worth it. "Knockout should be in place."

The vault's electronics clicked green shortly before Scandal set the last tumbler on the combination. They opened the door and began cleaning out all of the cases and safe boxes, only hitting the ones filled with diamonds. Scandal frowned at ignoring several million dollars' worth of bearer's bonds, but time was a precious commodity for them.

* * *

Scandal smelled trouble. She heard a whiff of air, and turned, just in time to eat a pair of boots to the face. Jason, hearing the noise, immediately reacted, tossing a vicious spin kick into Batgirl's trajectory as she swung through on a line.

She took the hit solid and went into a roll off to the side. The impact had hurt, but he hadn't struck anything vital. When she looked up and saw the two submachine guns, she darted into action, tossing a couple of smoke pellets. She could only carry a small amount of gear under her dress, but Nightwing was carrying a spare belt for her, if he could make it in time.

Once she was clear of the smoke, she saw Godiva and Wondergirl moving to intercept the green haired woman. It was probably for the best they both went after her too. She easily landed a blow on Godiva and sent her rolling across the floor, and when Wondergirl struck her in retaliation, it's like she'd punched steel.

"You got good Babs. And even hotter." She heard behind her, just before a knee caught her above the kidneys. She rolled with the impact, mitigating much of the damage, before going into motion. Whoever the guy was, he was throwing feet early, which tended to mean he preferred kicking, so she closed in tight and began using elbows and open palm strikes. What worried her is, not only had he tracked her through the smoke, but he knew her name. She had to put that aside for the moment though and attack.

Which, is exactly what he wanted. He deflected most of the strikes, but he ate one which likely broke a couple of ribs, before trapping her arm and wrenching it, stepping around her and locking her against her own body mechanics.

Mustang, who'd been covering Perdita's escape with her retinue, finally turned to observe the fight. When he saw his love in an arm trap, being lifted several inches off the ground, fury flashed hot behind his eyes. A wave of telekinetic force took shape in front of him, coalescing invisibly into the form of a stiletto. He was about to release it, letting it fly at the speed of thought, to impale the red hooded man's leg, when he was blindsided, taking a wicked elbow shot to the back of the head.

Unlike Batgirl, or really anyone else in the melee, there was no badass rolling with the impact, or tanking it without any show. No, whoever hit him, hit him damn hard, and it sent him sprawling. Even with his body fortified by telekinetic energy, it wasn't enough to mitigate the impact. The stiletto form dissipated, leaving Mustang on his face.

He was about to get onto his feet before he was hauled there first. The woman they were calling Roulette began firing off rapid strikes into his body and face. He tried to deflect them, not succeeding as much as he'd like, though her impacts were considerably weaker than the blindside shot she'd landed on him, her goal not to telegraph her attacks.

Barbara finally bit the bullet and brought her heel up backwards, the hard motion lighting fire in the shoulder that the man in the red mask had taken control of. He released her though, the sudden low blow surprising him. She followed it up with a side scissor kick, something that didn't require her hands to execute.

He ducked, but it left him open. As he came up to retaliate, another set of boots made impact with him, Nightwing drop kicking him towards Barbara, who swept at his feet, bringing him face down. He rolled into it and dashed away, but not before taunting the two. "Nice cheap shot Dick." He said, and began leading Nightwing and Batgirl on a chase.

Knockout was having fun with her two. Wondergirl had managed to rope one of her arms and was trying to control her, but it still left one hand for her to punch the one with the big jugs. The girl just didn't know how to handle someone who knew how to fight. "Make it tougher, wouldja? I'm getting' bored!"

Sounded like a plan. [Mustang, switch partners!] Wondergirl called out, choking way up on her lasso, and slinging Knockout towards him.

Reactively, Mustang caught hold of Roulette with his mind and slung her at Godiva, who managed to catch her. She went to attack but the tattooed woman slipped away, though not before losing her wig.

Knockout became the more visible threat however. She made a happy face at the man in the cowboy coat and came in swinging. Her attacks were much slower, much easier to telegraph. Wondergirl had made the right call. He had time to adequately deflect her attacks, and she left openings he could capitalize on. She launched a big straight snap kick at him, moving to turn it into a stomp, which he was able to dodge. On the sidestep, he caught her drawing back into a backfist to catch him, but he was able to trap her arm and bring her down in a classic armbar.

This, as Koa had beaten into his head, was Lua. Mustang moved to jerk his hips and drive his weight, the goal to break the strong woman's arm. The sound was sick, a wet popping and snapping. The green haired woman screamed, taking advantage of Mustang's surprise to bring a vicious uppercut into his chin, sending him flying.

Daeva hadn't been idle the entire fight, instead keeping out of the way to work her quite literal magic. Outside, a fierce storm was brewing, rolling in over the Mediterranean. The forecast had called for some rain that evening, but there was a tempest stirring up outside. Their escape would be heavily hampered in just a few short moments.

Miss Martian was similarly not idle, launching debris at anyone she could draw a bead on, chairs, tables, cutlery, anything that she could get her psychic grip on became a weapon.

Jason darted through the room, occasionally lighting off with his submachine guns; firing in short, controlled bursts, mostly at Wondergirl, Godiva, and Mustang. Occasionally to suppress the pursuit of Nightwing and Batgirl he'd open fire, but largely he was shooting at clusters of people to force the two Gothamites to react. Still, he spent his ammo quickly, but it freed his hands to lob a pellet towards Miss Martian. She went insubstantial to avoid it, but when the pellet struck the ground at her feet and erupted into fire, she shrieked and fell to the ground, trying to escape.

Nightwing and Batgirl weren't content to just avoid gunfire though. He'd given her the extra belt he was carrying, which she tossed around her waist quickly. Between them, they were lobbing 'rangs left and right, trying to put the red helmeted man off his footing. Miss Martian began ushering more civilians away, trying to keep them safe.

Neither of them could properly gain a real advantage on the other, until Superboy and Koa arrived on scene. They'd been held up by civilians on the stairs, trying to escape the melee. When Koa entered, he eyeballed the closest target, which was Scandal, and went directly for her.

Scandal had been lining up an attack on Daeva when she got rushed. The massive man hit her like a bulldozer, bearing her to the ground. She was on her feet in an instant though, already on the counterattack. She swiped at him several times with her bladed gauntlet, scoring cuts on his body, though she should have been eviscerating him with these attacks.

Knockout wasn't fairing so well either. While she had one arm broken, she still had the presence to capitalize on a downed Mustang, stomping him mercilessly, until Superboy showed up to play. He'd rocked her with a quick combo of fists, hitting her harder than she'd ever been hit in her life.

Daeva, watching this, slipped over towards Fractal, who'd been extremely busy by the windows during the whole thing. He'd been collecting material left and right, everything from the serving dishes to spent brass, using his (very) little helpers to bind and fuse the material, shaping an exoskeleton. He combined this with parts from the supply closet where Batgirl had changed, including a floor buffer and a vacuum cleaner. His golem was crude, but would be effective enough.

[Daeva, would you be so kind as to power my monster?] He asked, and Daeva didn't miss the reference to Frankenstein. She signaled to Wondergirl, who broke away from Ravager and whipped a chair up and through the skylight.

With a clear line, Daeva called down the lightning, a single bolt flashing brightly, blinding the people in the ballroom as it struck the machine that Fractal had all but willed into existence. Immediately, the metallic creature reared up and darted off after the red helmeted man. As the only person with firearms, he was the most dangerous to the civilians in the room.

The creature clipped Jason at the knees, forcing him to tumble. He came up in a roll and whistled loudly, making for the window. Nightwing refused to let him escape, and used his grappnel gun to launch a line, which wrapped around his foot. Just as he was about to yank and put tension on the line, Jason dropped one of his guns, drew a knife, and cut the line in a single fluid motion.

He went out the window with another leap, Ravager, Knockout, and Scandal following. With a grin concealed behind his red 'hood', Jason triggered a remote switch, causing all of the ultrasonic devices to discharge at full capacity; the effect was immediate, with most of the assembled heroes immediately experiencing dizzying waves of vertigo and nausea. Except for the massive Polynesian man, who tried to give chase.

Swinging on a line of his own, Jason landed on the roof of the building he'd set up on, scurrying to the rifle he'd left, and quickly lined up a shot. He flicked the safety off, held the scope to compensate for the now very heavy winds, and pulled the trigger.

The round exited the barrel of the rifle, the suppressor doing little to muffle the sound, and struck Koa in the chest, immediately causing him to crumple. Jason didn't get his reward of blood spray from what should have been a fatal center mass shot, but he did put the only one not succumbing to the effects of the ultrasonics down, preventing pursuit.


	18. Chapter 18

July 19th  
Monaco, France  
2145 CEST

The continuous assault to the gathered people's eardrums was hellish. More than one had thrown up, and if it hadn't been for the fire pellet's fuel burning itself off too quickly, she probably would have met her end. The person who had it worst was Superboy. With his enhanced hearing, he not only felt the effects, he could hear them too, which was hellishly painful. He lay on the floor, unable to process anything for several minutes.

It was Wondergirl who got to her feet first, shaking the vertigo and nausea loose. She surveyed the scene quickly, and shot quick as an arrow to Koa, who still lay on the ground, unmoving. She flipped his massive body over, and saw the bullet buried halfway into his skin, blood trickling out. Afraid to pull it out, she checked for, and found breathing and a pulse.

Her next stop was Nightwing, who was at that moment doing a solid job of snapping himself out of the dizziness. "We've got pretty much everyone down." She said, letting him take charge of the situation while she tended to M'gann.

Nightwing rendered what aid he could, first Batgirl, then Fractal and Superboy. It was several minutes before most of the team was standing, and the aftermath of the fight showed.

Godiva's costume was wrecked. Like all of Alpha, her gear was much more fragile than their usual stuff, but her disguise, a simple white full body suit with strategic panels cut out and highlights of gold, was so mangled even she was using her hands to cover up for modesty.

Daeva and Fractal had avoided actually getting hit, which was good. They were extremely fragile, and they knew it, so they allowed their tanks to do their job. Speaking of them though, Mustang still hadn't gotten up, and Koa was still unconscious. Wondergirl looked like she'd been through hell and back, as did Godiva. They'd routed the powered thieves, but they'd taken a hell of a beating for it.

* * *

July 19th  
Mount Justice  
1630 EST

Barbara and Dick were taking turns, one pacing around the small conference room while the other sat and complained about the other doing the pacing. On a holoscreen, they'd set up a whiteboard, and used what little evidence they had to piece together the mystery man in the red helmet.

"His voice was familiar." Barbara said, rubbing her burning eyes. "I've heard it before."

Dick nodded. "Yeah, me too." He said as he looked over what little footage they had. Only one solid image from a traffic camera. "He knew our moves, inside and out."

"He cut your line." Barbara said, standing up. "Easy as breathing."

"He was expecting it. That move looked practiced." Dick said, taking a seat and letting her do the pacing for a while.

"No, come here for a minute." Barbara said, stopping him. Dick walked over to her, and she quickly trapped his arm in the same manner that the red helmeted man had trapped hers. "Is this familiar to you too?"

She didn't apply full pressure, but she did squeeze the joint lock enough to get her point across. Dick let her trap him there for a moment before tapping her on the arm. She released it, and he turned around, his eyes narrowing. It was moments like this he was so much like Bruce it was scary.

"You're thinking the same thing I am." He said, going back to the board to re-inspect the man while he was mid leap. "But it's impossible."

"Dick, it was Jason." Barbara said, standing next to her old friend. "He was one step ahead of us, he knew exactly what we'd do, how we'd react. He knew you well enough to use you to pull his heist for him."

Dick frowned. "There's a term the lowlifes in Gotham have been using. I think Penguin coined it. When a plan hinges on someone doing exactly what they'd be expected to do, they call it a Batman gambit."

"I need to get to Gotham." He said, pulling his mask back on. "Stay here please. They need leadership."

Damn him for dropping that on her. She wanted to be there, to talk to Bruce, to find out what the next move was, but Dick had put her in a position that she couldn't just back out of. She made an angry face at his back as he walked out, but another thought came to mind.

He'd handed her an opportunity to return what she was once given.

Barbara pulled her cowl back on, and strode out of the conference room, heading to the infirmary by way of the main hall. When the most dramatic thing she encountered was a smile and wave from Beast Boy, she knew the place was in good hands.

"How are you not a drooling mess?" was the first thing she heard upon opening the infirmary door. Artemis, dressed in civilian clothing, had volunteered to help with the wounded, and she was currently confounded by Barbara's boyfriend.

"Major tolerance." He croaked out at her. When Barbara got closer, she could see he was laying bare to at least the waist, his torso and face covered with massive bruises, cuts, and swelling from Knockout's attention. "They stock benzodiazepine here because you can't OD someone on it without drug interaction. Trust me, I wish it was different right now."

He smiled at his girl when she strolled up. Reaching down, she squeezed his hand as she rested half her bottom on the edge of the small infirmary bed. "Are you being a difficult patient?"

"She's being a difficult nurse." Deke said, pointing at Artemis.

"I am not." Artemis retorted. "You're not even officially a med student yet and you're already a horrible patient. God help you when you're an actual doctor."

Deke mulled that over. "Ok, you're right." He said and turned his head slightly to look more directly at his girl. Artemis took the hint and slipped away with a wave at them.

"How's Koa?" He asked. As bad as he felt, he knew Koa had it worse.

"L'gann Zeta'd with him to Posiedonis. The Atlantean docs are taking good care of him." Barbara said, still surveying the damage.

"Awesome." Deke muttered, laying back into the bed. Since the base had been handed over to the teenaged heroes, there were no painkillers stronger than over the counter meds available. Since he couldn't just sleep through it due to his tolerance to valium and its family, he was miserable. "So, I doubt I can fulfill my boyfriend duties for a while."

Barbara shook her head at him and brushed her fingers across his shoulder as though she were swatting at him. "I think I can live. I've got news though."

Deke frowned. "We're all getting disbanded because we got our asses handed to us back in Monaco, right? I knew it."

"No Cowboy. Captain Atom is benching you for two weeks, Koa probably longer. Since that would leave the rest shorthanded, he's sent everyone home for at least the couple of weeks you're down."

Deke scowled at that. "I'll be functional sooner than that." He protested, trying to sit up and doing a horrible job of it. Barbara just rested her hand against his chest to calm him. The green haired woman had worked a number on her boy. Batman would call it hazards of the mission, but it left Barbara feeling bleak inside.

"I'm taking the time with you. Batman is inevitably going to distance me, Robin, and Nightwing for a while." She said. He had absolutely done it for her, and she would not let him be alone. "We can use the apartment in Gotham again if you want."

"Don't stop doing this because of me, please." Deke said, almost pleading with her. "I'll be alright, I promise." She wouldn't just take a couple weeks off for nothing, it wasn't her.

"Marshall Deacon." Barbara began, using his really real name.

"Barbara Joan." Deke interrupted.

Barbara frowned at her boy. "You're confusing me for Batman. The life doesn't consume me. I'd like to think that, barring an emergency, this could become a thing between us. When one of us gets hurt, the other steps away to care for them. Really, you gave me the idea, so you brought this on yourself."

He was defeated, he knew it. He could push the issue, piss her off to the point of a real fight, and lose that way, or he could just accept she had a point, and he lost that way. "Alright, fine, but if it's okay with you, I want to recoup at home."

"Florida's fine with me too." Barbara said, already sending a few messages out.

"Not what I meant love." Deke said, brushing his fingertip across her hand. "Godiva can have the base to herself, I want to go home."

"You want to go to Kentucky?" Barbara asked, wanting to be clear. She didn't care where they wound up, so long as they wound up there together. They were a determined pair, she was confident they'd make anywhere work for them.

"Yeah." Deke said, closing his eyes hard, trying to shut the pain away. He felt like jackhammered shit, and that was on a good moment. Barbara noticed it too, and stroked his shoulder, noticing one bruise incongruent with the rest. She considered something a moment and decided to go for it.

"You know, you can't blame that woman for all your bruises. I think this one's my fault." She said, pointing out where she'd bitten him the other day. She was pleased at his reaction, a wonderfully silly derpy smile.

"You're too good for me." Deke said to his love, trying hard not to laugh. Laughing would hurt too much.

"Stop that." Barbara said, not laughing either. "We're in this together, and I'm just giving what I get. Now, do you think you can handle getting to a proper hospital?"

Deke thought about that for a moment. If he tried to cowboy through the pain, she'd be seriously upset with him, but he needed to make sure he was right about it just being a lot of bruising and hairline fractures on his bones. "I need to go regardless, but I don't think you'll have to carry me."

Barbara stood up from his bed. "I'm going to go get changed. Meet me by the Zeta tubes." She said, and walked out of the infirmary slowly, watching him get to his feet and so very slowly began the walk to the Zeta platform. Beast Boy walked over and remained handy while Deke made his journey, just in case.

As he walked, Deke telekinetically pulled a shirt on, stretching the plain cotton material horribly. He wasn't even halfway to the Zeta tubes when he saw his love walk up. She saw he wasn't on the platform, so she went to him, taking over for Beast Boy, who she thanked sweetly.

Deke nodded in agreement to her gratitude, and kept soldiering on. "I'll call the Familia after the hospital and tell them we're coming." He said, feeling her fingertips slip into his hand. Their relationship was no secret anymore, and while Barbara wasn't so big on the public displays, that more went for kissing and the like.

"I can't wait to meet them." Barbara said, legitimately excited to get the chance to meet the people who'd helped raise her boy. "They'll be okay with us being there?"

"Yeah, but we're not staying there." Deke said, and winked at his girl. "Dad's life insurance policy was set up to keep the house paid for and kept up. I was about to try and find quick work to go back there the day Miss Halston went missing."

"So it's your fallback?" Barbara asked her boy as the got onto the Zeta platform.

"Not anymore. Now, I dunno what it is. I suppose it'll always be a place I have, no matter where I live." He said, as Barbara keyed in for Gotham. Once they were recognized, they disappeared, winding up in that same alleyway they'd been in before. This time, however, Barbara waved down a taxi, and got them to Gotham's Reach medical center, a much less busy hospital on the edge of the urban sprawl proper.

Deke had been taken back pretty quickly, the docs there putting him through a series of X-rays and an MRI. Barbara spun a story about his injuries coming from falling off of a fire escape during a makeout session, acting well out of character to sell the cover. They'd discussed this plan while they waited for their cab so he could corroborate it correctly, and while getting all the pictures taken, he'd repeated the same tale well enough.

The docs seemed like they didn't quite buy it, but the evidence of full body trauma was a clear indication it wasn't just drug seeking behavior. As Deke had expected, it was small stress fractures and near full body bruising. His ability to absorb damage was less about being more durable, and more about bleeding energy off of an attack, and evenly redistributing the remaining force across his entire body. It left him looking like, well, exactly like he looked. Like someone who'd taken a hell of a beating.

He was able to argue not staying overnight for observation due to, Barbara mentioning that they were his very sick aunt's only caregivers. Once she opened the door, Deke had added to it by calling up some memories, telling the docs about how his very sick aunt needed to have her blood sugar tightly monitored while she was on cortisones for her chest infection.

That was enough for the docs, who handed him a few prescriptions and sent the two teenagers on their way. Deke broke one of the painkillers in half and hit a nearby water fountain to take it, stuffing the bottles into his pockets carefully to avoid pill rattle. This had become habit from the rampant prescription pill abuse in his hometown and surrounding region. A bottle of antibiotics could get a person mugged.

Not that a mugging was such a big deal. Heaven help the person who tried, but why cause a problem that might not happen otherwise? As they walked out the door, Deke put his hand out for his lover. She took it happily, and walked close to him. "I am _so_ glad we use our powers for good instead of evil." She said with a wink.

It was true though. Barbara realized very quickly that if they needed to do wrong, it wouldn't be that hard to succeed at it. Maybe it was lingering effects of their mentally linked lovemaking, or just plain growing accustomed, but it was getting easier and easier for either of them to get into synch with the other.

"Yeah, we sent the other people packing." Deke said with a wink. It had been a pyrrhic victory, but it was still a win. He couldn't discount that. People had gotten hurt, Koa almost killed, but they'd handled the very nasty surprises quite well.

"Oh hey, were you that mad at Nightwing?" Deke asked as they waited on the shuttle service van to pull up.

"No, why?" Barbara asked. The two friends might have honed their detective skills with Batman, but they weren't like the man at all.

"You called him a dick the first time you two were in the infirmary earlier. I thought he was getting snippy because of what had happened." Deke said, puzzled.

Barbara wanted to smack herself, and Dick for that matter. They'd assumed he was sleeping and had spoken plainly. "Uhm, look, I don't want to lie to you, so can you just accept I wasn't mad at him and leave it there? It's personal and not my place to share."

"Yeah, sure thing." Deke replied. His own curiosity was nagging him, but the way she'd explained the situation told him all he needed to know. "I was just gonna text him and tell him I didn't think he was a dick or anything."

"Yeah, that's thoughtful and all, but don't do that, okay?" Barbara said, but turned to face her boy. "So wait a minute, if I was mad at him, you'd back him up?"

"Well, I mean, if I thought you were just being harsh or something, probably." Deke said, knowing he'd stepped in it. He wanted to take a peek into her thoughts, but he outright refused when it came to anything but their sex life. It didn't help she was keeping herself very tightly reigned in, giving off nothing. "The guy's my friend too."

"Okay, just checking." Barbara said with a very girlish smile and wink. When her boy's face slumped, she kissed him on the cheek. If he wasn't formulating his own opinions she was going to start getting worried very quickly. "I know you have my back when it counts Cowboy."


	19. Chapter 19

July 19th  
Gotham City  
2100 EST

Barbara let the two of them into the apartment she and her father shared. She was surprised to see her dad home when they walked in, and dashed towards him in the kitchen to give him a hug. "Hi Dad!" She said brightly as he wrapped her up in his arms.

Her being gone for days at a time was getting more and more common, and before long, she'd be living in a dorm at Gotham University. Still in town, but a world away. Jim Gordon just held onto her for a while, the text she'd sent telling him that she was okay was no comparison to loving on his daughter a while.

"You're home early," She observed after a moment, checking the pan on the stove. "And already eating like this? I was only gone a few days."

Jim frowned. She wasn't supposed to notice the pot of canned beef stew he had warming up. "What, I can't enjoy my favorite food to celebrate Gotham PD closing the case on the last of the Maroni holdouts?"

"You got them?" Barbara asked, opening the refrigerator, pulling out a bag of mixed vegetables, and putting them in Jim's hands. She then pulled the stew off the burner and turned the fire off.

She was too much like her mother for his own good. Jim just opened the bag and absently munched on a baby carrot. "Got them all. They couldn't wait to roll on each other."

Barbara beamed. This case had been one that he'd inherited when he first came to Gotham. A lot of stuff had happened, but he'd still held onto this one. To see it to the end was something to be happy about. She kissed Jim on the cheek and hugged him again. "Good job daddy." She said, and turned to lean against the counter.

The whole time, Deke just stood there quietly, buzzing hard on the pain meds. It brought to mind the day his dad was pinned with the Commendation medal. He was very little then, but he remembered after the whole hoopla he'd rushed to his dad and told him the very same thing. He wasn't jealous at all of his love, just reminiscing.

"Oh wow, sorry Cowboy." Barbara said, looking to her boy. "I got caught up."

"Don't worry about me." Deke said and looked at her father. "Congratulations sir. Sounds like a good day."

"It was." Jim said, still weighing on when he was going to tell his daughter's beau to just call him by name. "Hungry? Apparently I'm not eating my stew."

"We're actually only here for a little bit." Barbara interjected. "I need some things, and I thought I'd take my boy for a late dinner."

Deke just shrugged. This was the first she'd said about it. Jim popped a piece of cauliflower into his mouth, chewing sadly on it. When Barbara left the room to gather what she needed, Deke handed him a fork from the dish drainer and lifted the lid off the cook pot.

Jim dug in, taking a few quick bites before putting the fork in the sink. Once he'd chewed and swallowed, he looked at the stray his daughter had picked up several months ago. "What happened to you anyway?" He asked, noticing the bruising all along the boy's arms and face. Barbara had told him that Deacon was a Meta, and he had to assume that the boy would take up crimefighting.

"Well sir, uhm, people that would have been dead, aren't." Deke said simply. More than once Commissioner Gordon had said he didn't want the details, the less to keep him up at night.

"Good job then." Jim said, reaching to clap the boy on the shoulder, but stopping before he potentially floored the kid. "Can we talk, by the way, man to man?"

"Yessir. Absolutely." Deke said with a nod. "The docs have me on meds though, so I might not conversate well."

"That's fine. Barb's heading to college, you understand that, right?"

"Yessir."

"She's going to graduate." Jim said this as statement of imperative fact.

"Yessir."

"Just so we're clear."

"She'll be graduating before I do sir, there's nothing to worry about." Deke said. He knew where her dad was going with this, and he couldn't blame the man one bit. If the roles were reversed, Deke couldn't say he wouldn't do the same thing.

"You finally decide to attend school? You oughta cut that hair and try the police academy." Jim said, poking at the boy.

"Gotham University medical department actually." Deke said, taking a cup from the dish drainer, filling it with water, and taking the time to wash Jim's fork. There were moments where keeping a secret from his girlfriend was worth it. Scoring points with her dad was one of them.

"Med school huh? Alright, I can handle that." Jim said, taking mental note of Deacon's actions.

"Yep, my boy's gonna be a doctor." Barbara said as she stepped back into the kitchen, a duffel over her shoulder. "And when he's a doctor, he'll know not to enable your terrible eating habits, will you Deke?"

"Busted." Deke said, quaffing the last of his glass of water. Barbara was amazed at how the boy could drink the tap water in Gotham. It seemed like every major villain and their brother was trying to poison the reservoir every time someone turned around.

"You dug your grave son." Jim said, heading into the living room with his bag of vegetables.

"Daddy, you didn't stop him. You're being charged as an accessory to this."

Jim just shook his head. "I'll turn state's evidence for a deal." He said. She might be a lot like her mother, but she was just as much his.

"I'll talk to the DA." Barbara said, kissing her dad on the cheek again. "We might get your sentence knocked down. As for you," Barbara said, turning to look at her boyfriend. "Belle Reve was built to hold people like you."

"I uh, I want a lawyer." Deke said with a snicker. His girl couldn't hold the straight face either, snickering along with him. Jim took this opportunity to scurry off to his favorite chair to catch up on some TV.

"Daddy, I'll be gone for a couple of weeks, but I'll be back in time for orientation." She said, leaning over Jim's chair behind him and kissing him upside down on the forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too Barb." Jim said, returning the affection. "Be safe and have fun."

"I will," Barbara called back to him. Once the door had shut, Jim reached into the end table next to his chair, and pulled a half-eaten bag of pork rinds out of the small drawer. He opened them up with a greedy look on his face, then scowled, set them aside, and went back to munching on snap pea pods and broccoli while he watched the news.

* * *

Outside, Barbara and Deke walked to the train station. It was slow going, as it had been all day, but it was a beautiful summer evening in Gotham. "You feeling okay Cowboy?" Barbara asked for the hundredth time.

"Yeah." Deke replied as they mounted the steps to the elevated train platform. "I'm good for now. I think walking is helping anyway."

"Always helped me." She said as they took a seat on a bench, completely alone in the little platform. "So, I thought we'd crash at the apartment tonight, but how were you planning on getting back home?"

Deke pondered that a moment, his thoughts fuzzy and difficult to sift through. "Fawcett City is only about three hours away, and there's a Zeta stop there. I can fly us the rest of the way, if you're interested."

That _was_ an interesting offer. She'd never flown with someone before. Well, not like that anyway. "Are you going to be able to, or will it hurt you?" She knew her boy, he'd try to do it regardless, but if she asked, he'd think about it first.

"To tell you the truth, I dunno. I won't be flying full speed anyway, we'd wind up in Baltimore before I realized I needed to stop. I'm guessing about twenty minutes in the air or so." Deke said, rubbing his eyes. He hated the way the meds made him feel, all loopy and nonsensical.

Barbara gave a small sweet smile to her boy, gently resting a hand on his shoulder. When he turned to look at her, she stole a kiss from him and opened her duffel. "So, I brought a couple of things with me. One or two surprises for when you're feeling better," She gave him a wink and a naughty smirk at that. "and something else, provided there's a blu-ray player handy."

"Yeah, mom bought us a home theater system with some of the money we got from the settlement. It's a bit dated now, but it should all still work." Deke said, and watched as she pulled out a thick blue case.

"So, Green Arrow was talking to us after a training session one day, he's a really chatty guy, and he said something, and looked at us like we were supposed to get a joke. Well, Nightwing was the only one who laughed, which kind of made Arrow feel sad, so, he brought us his copy of this tv show, he said it was the greatest ever made, and he even sat and watched them with us. I got hooked, so I'm getting you hooked too." She said, showing him the full series of Firefly.

"Sold." Deke said. He was going to say something else when the train came around the bend. Barbara quickly stuffed the box set back into her duffel, and stood to wait on the train. Deke got up with her, and they boarded, heading to the station near the apartment. (their apartment?)

Once they had stepped off the platform, Barbara already had her phone in hand, placing an order to the nearby Indian restaurant which had been her boy's first (and only, she thought.) introduction to the cuisine.

They got into the apartment a little before ten. Just exactly as they'd left it back in March, the candles were still in the bedroom, and bedsheets Deke had forgotten to take out of the dryer. "I told you you left them in there." Barbara said, lightly poking her boy in the chest.

"Yep." Deke drawled, flicking a gesture at the dryer to knock the wrinkles out of the sheets. He had to make the motion a couple of times, his concentration hindered as it was. He peeled his shirt off and laid it on the back of the sofa, before fiddling with the thermostat. It was not exactly cool in the place.

With his back turned, Barbara inspected the rest of the damage on his body. Like the front of him, there was a camouflage style pattern of bruising in blacks, blues, and yellows all across his back. She placed one hand on his shoulder blade, and brushed his hair away with the other.

"You got beat to hell babe." She said, tracing her hands up and down his back. "Now you're one of us."

"Huh?" Deke asked, turning around to face his love, and leaning against the wall for support, and even that pressure caused the pain to flare up.

"Everyone on the League says you know you're in it to the end the first time you save someone's life without getting thanked, and you'd still do it again. I think it's the first time you get hurt, like, seriously hurt. I know you Cowboy, you'd be out there right now if you thought I'd let you get away with it."

"Damn right." Deke said, his girl knew him, there was no doubt about it, and how was she still surprising him by turning him on in new and different ways? She was just standing close to him, her hand on his chest and her eyes looking up at his. With the only lights on in the place coming from the streetlights outside, she was bathed in darkness, only slivers of light streaking across her body to illuminate her and bring her out of the shadow.

Deke had to shake his head clear at that. He'd started imagining her naked like that, and he was in no physical condition to perform even half of what he'd like to do to her at that moment. He settled for kissing her deeply, taking his time and enjoying her touch.

It was several moments before Barbara pulled away, having to remove herself from the situation for his own safety. She was sure he didn't realize just how much these slow, deep kisses turned her on, and if he kept them up, she was going to act on it.

"We've got food coming Cowboy." She said, slipping out of his arms, and truly despising the way that particular action felt. She flipped on a couple of lamps to give him more light to see by. If he tripped and fell over a chair, it certainly wouldn't do either of them any favors.

"Yeah, there is that. I doubt the delivery boy could handle seeing us in the middle of things. It'd probably drive him mad with jealous sorrow, and that's just not the kinda guy I am." Deke said, sitting down on the sofa. Barbara giggled at her boy and went into the bedroom to change.

She came back out in the tee shirt she'd appropriated from him a while ago and a pair of gym shorts. Deke didn't say anything, but he gestured towards the other end of the sofa. He had a notebook and pencil in his hand, which he'd snatched from the kitchenette counter.

"You making a to-do list?" Barbara asked, showing him the tip of her tongue.

"Nope. Just kick back and relax." Deke suggested, and when she did, he began moving his pencil over the paper. She didn't know what to make of it. He didn't exactly draw that often, and in fact had only seen him do so once before, back in the hotel room in Monaco. That had been an abstract looking piece that she had managed to keep when she and Nightwing had gone back to recover the team's things.

Deke kept at it for a while, occasionally glancing up at her for a moment before returning to his work. He set the notebook down when their food arrived, though after Barbara put their late dinner on the small table, she walked back to him with a sweet but expectant smile on her face.

Shrugging, Deke handed her the notebook. One glance and she was having a hard time containing herself. "Deke, honey, this is a stick figure with really big boobs."


	20. Chapter 20

July 20th  
Flatwoods Kentucky  
1145 EST

They'd gotten a late start that morning. After their dinner, Deke had put himself into a deep trance to focus on healing himself, which had lasted quite late into the night. Barbara had taken that opportunity to call Artemis and chatter with her for a while, enjoying the chance to catch up. She'd of course filled her archer friend in more fully on the operation in Monaco, though Barbara left out a few of the bigger details.

The next morning, they'd both bathed and breakfasted quickly and headed out to the Zeta stop in Gotham, using it to get them to Fawcett City. Deke had absently wondered if they'd meet Captain Marvel while he ran the navigation app on his phone.

Barbara noticed he was wincing as he moved, and spoke with a greater clarity. She didn't say anything, but she knew he'd ignored his own advice about taking his meds correctly. It was obvious to her that he didn't want to fly impaired, but she'd have a lecture handy in the event he pushed himself too hard.

Finally ready, Deke lifted her telekinetically and brought her close against his back before using his smartwatch to orient himself correctly and taking off. They launched into the air in a high arc, necessary to dodge the tall buildings of the city. Once at the proper altitude, Deke planed them out and manipulated kinetic energy around them, again going with the shape of the Blackbird, and set off.

Barbara looked around, marveling at the way the world looked below, shooting past at six hundred miles an hour. She'd learned how to fly the Batwing, and had planned on getting her civilian pilot's license just to say she had it, but this was a whole other thing entirely.

She'd wanted to ask him questions, but the very intense look he'd worn at liftoff was enough to make her wait. It wasn't long though, before he began pushing their 'nose' down, coming into his hometown. He'd still had to do a drop to stop completely, but he just enveloped them in a sphere of invisible energy and let them fall. It was much slower, but also much safer.

Barbara nearly squealed in delight at the drop. She loved skydiving, and didn't get to do it as much as she liked, so it had been a nice substitute. Their landing zone, a small field not too far from the highway, came rushing up to meet them, before slowing to a stop.

Once on the ground, Deke pointed at a small house not too far away. "There's us." He said. Barbara could see the top of the hill the house was nestled up against was blighted and bare, just as he'd described it. Around them, there were a few other houses, but none were extremely close. Also, he hadn't lied when he said it would be miserably hot. This close to a major river, the humidity was oppressive. Gotham at least had the ocean breeze from the Delaware bay to calm the heat and humidity there.

"Is this what you meant when you said 'Up a holler'?" Barbara asked. He'd tried explaining the term when they were living in Happy Harbor, but he'd lamented Rhode Island's lack of proper hollers and had promised he'd show her first chance he had.

"Yes my dear, you are now officially up a holler." Deke said, popping a painkiller into his mouth and grimacing through the dry swallow. Barbara decided to let him off the hook, after seeing the face he made at taking his meds.

They walked the hundred yards or so through the field to the small house. It was a two story residence, with an attached barn-turned-garage, which reminded her of how Superman had described his childhood home in rural Kansas.

Deke fished his key out of his pocket and opened the back door. He didn't immediately enter though, pausing at the threshold. "I didn't come back after mom's funeral. I stayed with Mami and Papi for a couple of months while Mami got everything in order for me. That's when I hopped on the bus to Gotham."

Barbara took her boy's hand and waited. If he didn't want to go inside, she wasn't about to make him. There was a hot, dusty smell from inside the place. But it was an earthy smell, not foreboding, just forgotten. Finally, Deke mustered the courage and stepped foot into the kitchen, gently beckoning his love to come in with him.

He took her duffel and sat it beside the table and leaned against the kitchen counter. There was simple black and white tile on the floors, with equally rustic cabinets. The appliances were newer, but fit the rest of the room. Barbara could see the living room through the other doorway, a huge plush looking sectional couch seemed to dominate the room.

Sunlight filtered through the curtains, staining the room orange, while dust floated in the air, dancing like tiny motes. "Sorry, Mami hired a gentleman to keep the grass cut and the property maintained, but cleaning wasn't part of the job description."

"It's fine Cowboy." Barbara said to her boy. She could tell he was distressed at being here, so she just let him work through it.

"Anyway, nickel tour time." He said, and led her into the living room proper. As she'd noticed, the large sectional couch dominated half the room, with a large television and entertainment center dominating the rest. Featured prominently on the mantle of the fireplace was an American flag folded into a triangle and sitting within a wood and glass box, next to which was a board with several ribbons, their colors faded somewhat with time.

"Here's the living room. I know it required all your detective skills to figure that out." He said, pointing back towards the kitchen. "There's a laundry room next to the kitchen with a bathroom across from it. "

They went upstairs, Deke pointing out the spare bedroom, which looked like it was being used as a storage catchall. Then his mother's room, which looked like it hadn't been touched in a very long while. Barbara didn't mention that. Instead, she deflected onto another door. "Is this your bedroom?" She asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that's mine." Deke said, and opened the door. Like the rest of the house, it was oppressively hot, and smelled like dust and forgotten memories. It was also pitch black within. Deke flipped the light switch, and Barbara noticed the aluminum foil taped to the windows.

It was large, the biggest bedroom in the house, and it was very much a typical teenaged boy's room. Desk and dresser, unmade bed, a shirt still hanging on the side of the bed. It was an old waterbed, converted with a regular mattress, and it was huge.

The walls were painted a slate gray color, which matched the charcoal colored carpet. Several posters hung on the walls as well, one of Johnny Cash giving the finger, another was a layout of guitars. There was a third, when Barbara peeked behind the door, which embarrassed Deke that she noticed. "So, this is what my boy's into?" She asked, checking out the spring break girls poster on the back of his door.

The models, well, Barbara wasn't sure what to say. They were glammed and dolled up of course, and objectively, they were all exceptionally attractive; round bottoms, huge breasts, perfect tans, perfect hair, and skimpy bikinis. She was not any of that so far as she was concerned, regardless of what letter her bra said. "Should I be worried about you living with Godiva?" Barbara asked, arching an eyebrow.

Deke stammered and muttered all over himself, immediately looking away from her as he fiddled with the controls on the window unit air conditioner. Barbara just put her hand on his shoulder and waited on him to look at her. Blushing furiously, he could barely meet her eyes. "Deke, my lovely, it's just a girlie poster. If you think I don't have a Hemsworth hanging in my room, you'd be wrong."

That had helped, especially since she seemed like she didn't want to admit it either. "I just, I'm really bad at this boyfriend thing I think." He said, just sitting down on the bed. He made a clumsy gesture at the door, still having trouble manipulating objects while doped on his painkillers. The Prednisone they'd given him for the inflammation certainly wasn't helping either. "I should have gotten here early or something, cleaned the place up, made it presentable or whatever."

"When? While you were lying in the infirmary? Or the hospital? Maybe last night? It's okay." Barbara said, sitting down next to him. "How about this, tonight we relax and tomorrow me and you will get this place in order?"

Deke pondered that through the haze in his head. "Yeah, that sounds good." He said, annoyed that he'd let the memories of the place get the better of him. Whoever said you can't go home was right. "You feel like driving Mister Mustang around?" He asked her after a moment.

Barbara shook her head at him. "Yeah, I can do that. Where did you want to go?"

"Get some stuff for here." Deke said, taking his time to stand back up. He made a mental note to focus on not getting his ass handed to him once he was up and running at a hundred percent. "You'll enjoy this I think."

He wasn't kidding. In the barn, Deke pulled the cover off a car, and Barbara caught herself staring. "Is that a '71 or a '72?" She asked as she ran her fingers across the hood of the cherry red Chevelle.

"71," Deke said as he looked under the car. "Get ready to pull these jack stands quick." He said, and made a gesture, lifting the car an inch. The weight wasn't an issue, and since he wasn't actually manipulating it, he had no problem keeping it hovering just off the ground.

She went to the ground, releasing the tension bar and sliding the stands out from under the axels before sliding them away. She particularly liked that he hadn't asked if she knew what to do, instead just believing that she could. And he called himself bad at being a boyfriend.

Once she'd cleared the last stand, Deke let the car down slowly. It wasn't even, going down on the rear driver's side tire first, but he was careful. Barbara dusted her shirt and shorts off as he did so, and wandered over to the driver's side. Deke tossed her they keys and went to grab a gas can. There was a gallon of the stuff, with fuel stabilizer, so they'd have to hit the gas station first thing.

Once he'd added the fuel, Barbara unlocked the doors and the two of them hopped in. "Gosh, I've never driven a car with a stick before." She said with wide innocent eyes, playing at being the coquette again.

"You are so full of it." Deke muttered, tickling her on the hip. She swatted his hand away and put the keys in, waking the beast up. The very large engine took a moment to fully come to life, but once it had, it rumbled beautifully.

As bad as she wanted to drive it like she'd stolen it, her lack of familiarity with the area forced her into driving more carefully. Her boy just gave simple directions, first getting them to a gas station. He'd gone in and paid, and came back out with a couple of bottles of tea.

Once fueled up, Deke directed her towards a small but rather nice residential neighborhood called Bellefonte. He had her pull into a driveway attached to one of the very nice houses lined up across the street from the small country club. "You ready to meet mi otra familia?"

"Kinda sudden Cowboy." Barbara said. She'd just tossed on a pair of denim shorts and a fitted Waking Lights tee shirt. She was dressed for a simple outing, not meeting family. "Do I look alright?"

"Out of my league, as always." He said with an earnest smile. "So, they obviously know about me. How do you want introduced as far as the life goes?"

Barbara pondered that as they headed up the walkway to the front door. "You can tell them I'm in, but keep it to my first name please." Again, she was glad she had chosen to wear a full cowl, and had done an excellent job of remaining an urban legend. It allowed her a bit of flexibility.

"Deal." Deke said, and opened the door to the house. "Mami? Papi? You home?" He called out.

Barbara could hear a ruckus in the house once her boy had spoken up. "Mijo?" a male voice called out from within. She walked in with her boy, and was quickly greeted by a very obviously Latino gentleman. His hair was jet black, though beginning to gray at the temples, and he kept a very tidy thin beard. "Mijo, there you are!" He said, and hugged him. Deke winced at the affection, squeaking out something between a grunt and a whine.

"What happened to you? Your mami is going to have kittens!" The man said, his accent relatively thin. Barbara knew his name was Hector from the stories Deke had told her.

"I'm good Papi, you should see the other guy." Deke said to deflect him, and turned to introduce his girl. "Papi, this is Barbara, you remember me talking about her."

Barbara offered her hand, which Hector took and used to pull her into a hug. "Mijo, you never said you were seeing a model."

Barbara blushed at that. "Thank you sir." She said sweetly, putting her good girl on. It was easy of course, but she thought playing it up a little might not hurt. "Deke's told me so much about you."

"Please, it's Hector, and you two come to the kitchen." Deke's Papi said, leading them into the house.

"Where's Mami?" Deke asked, digging into the fridge. He withdrew a couple of oranges and handed one to Barbara.

"She's downstairs doing laundry." Hector said, leaning against the counter and nipping at a can of Casique beer. As if on cue, a side door in the kitchen opened, and a rather striking Latina woman stepped into the room, laundry basket in hand. She just tossed it off to the side and ran to her son, coming to a stop at the last moment and frowning.

"Mijo, what cabron did this to you?" She said, immediately inspecting the bruising across his body, tugging at his shirt with absolutely no care whatsoever.

"Mami, it's okay." Deke said, trying to push her hands away.

"You went to the doctor, right?" She asked. Hector just looked at Barbara and shrugged, to which she replied in like. The first thing she noticed is how young they looked. If either of them were in their forties yet, she'd be surprised. "What tests did they run, what did they write you, and how did they treat you? I don't know where you went but I probably don't trust the doctors there."

"MRI and X-rays, I'm on twenty migs of Prednisone twice a day and they gave me Percocet tens with the standard six hours as needed, but I'm halfing them. Really though, the Gotham docs are pretty solid, they see a lot of trauma." Deke said, finally getting away to relative safety.

"Maria, our boy isn't alone, which I'm not surprised you didn't notice." Hector said, and gestured towards Barbara. "This is Barbara."

"Dios mio, I'm so sorry you had to see that." Maria said, taking Barbara's offered hand. "I'm Maria, you've met Hector. Please, feel welcome here."

"Yes I have, Doctor Delgado, and thank you. I generally go by Babs though." Barbara said. The woman was absolutely fierce. Barbara couldn't help but admire her.

"I'm only Doctor Delgado at the office Mija." Maria said. "You call me Maria or Mami like everyone else."

"Yes ma'am." Barbara said, and Deke didn't notice she was either being legitimately a little shy herself, or she was putting it on.

To help break the ice, Deke sat his half peeled orange down, and focused his attention towards the laundry basket. He gestured like a puppeteer controlling a marionette, clumsily depositing the dropped laundry back into the basket. In a more sober state of mind, he would have folded them again, but for the time being, he had to settle for just picking up.

"So, you know about Deacon?" Hector asked her.

"Yes, we met on the job." Barbara said with emphasis. "You should feel proud of him. When he and I met, he helped save several people from a human trafficking ring."

"You're one of them?" Maria asked. When Barbara nodded, Maria pressed. "Which one are you?"

"Maria, you think you might let her have a few secrets? We only just met her and she trusted us enough to even mention it at all." Hector said, taking the laundry basket out of midair and setting them on the table.

"Sorry, I got ahead of myself." She said to Barbara, though her gears were turning. "How long have you been seeing my son?"

Deke just shook his head and went back to his orange, giving Barbara an apologetic look.

"Four months a week ago." Barbara said, finding the woman's direct attitude refreshing.

"He's acting like the gentleman we raised him to be I hope?" Maria said, leveling her eyes at Deke, who just popped a slice of orange into his mouth.

"Yes, very much so." Barbara said. "I didn't date much before him, but he's shown to be very kind and well mannered. Also an excellent cook, which I hear you were responsible for."

"Flattery is getting you places Mija." Maria said with a wink. "Speaking of cooking, I don't feel like doing it, and Deacon needs his rest. Hector, God help us, but it's up to you."

"This is why man invented the wallet." Hector said, digging his phone out of his pocket.


	21. Chapter 21 (Lemon Juice)

July 20th  
Flatwoods Kentucky  
1325 EST

"So, you don't want to tell us who you are under the mask," Maria said, still trying to get answers. "Can you tell us what you do at least? Can you fly or lift cars or something?"

The woman was relentless. Barbara couldn't hate that. "No, that's all him." She said, putting her hand on her boy's arm. "I don't actually have any powers."

"That's arguable." Deke muttered. Barbara colored pink at her boy, he doing a good job of keeping her crushing on him. "You're scary smart."

"I hope you're going to college then." Maria said as she re-folded the laundry.

"I am. I'm going for computer science at Gotham U." Barbara said with pride. Deke had rested his hand against the small of her back while they both leaned against the counters in the kitchen, the warmth of his fingertips comforting to her.

"Well that's good. Can you maybe tell me better how you two met?" Maria asked, setting the basket of clothes aside. Hector walked back in from his phone call and sat down with her at the table.

Deke and Barbara conferred for a few moments, and finally Barbara spoke up. "Batman isn't the only hero in Gotham, and since he's in the Justice League, several other people have stepped up. Deke was one of them. He and I were both working different cases one night, which turned into the same case."

"I took it too personally, and I got a little unhinged, and she was able to reign me in. It got her hurt though, which I still feel horrible about," Barbara swatted at him lightly for that one. He should know better by now. "And I stuck around her while she healed. It was kinda a one-thing-leads-to-another sorta deal, and here we are."

Hector heard the way they talked about one another, and saw the way they were so comfortable in each other's proximity. As an artist, he made his living recognizing the signs and trying to encourage people to act on them. "Mijo, why don't you take her downstairs and show her around for a few?"

"Sure papi." Deke said, and gently guided his love towards the basement door. He spared another glance at his second father, and read the intention on the man, recognizing why he'd suggested they head to the basement.

"Maria," Hector began once the two teenagers (adults really, just very young ones) were out of the room. "You and I need to talk a moment."

"Por supuesto. Why?"

"Stop interrogating them. This isn't Cuba, and they're in love, just let it happen." Hector said to his wife.

"I know that Hector, I saw it plain as you did. I just get excited though. You can tell she's been through things too, and I'm happy for them. Can you blame me for planning a wedding too early?" Maria said, taking her husband's hands.

"There's early and there's too early." Hector said, kissing his wife's hands. "Let them be young lovers a while first, see if they even fit together."

* * *

Downstairs, Deke was showing Barbara where his otra papi did his work. Part of the basement had been turned into a small recording booth, while several instruments sat around. Deke just winked at her and sat down in front of a small keyboard.

He flicked the power switch on, and ran his fingers across the keys, plinking out one of the most iconic four chord songs ever written. Barbara giggled and sat down next to him on the bench, surprising him by adding her fingers to the mix, taking over a portion of the song.

The two sat and played Journey for a moment, neither of them singing remarkably well, but they were so busy laughing at one another that, even if they were capable of truly powerful vocals, it still wouldn't have happened.

"You know, believe it or not, I actually _did_ take the midnight train to Gotham." He said to her.

"Hey, we shared the night over a smile too." She replied, snickering. "So, we're obligated to never stop believing."

"That's the easiest thing in the world to do." He said, and turned towards her, planting a kiss on her. She made a happy sound and kissed him back, lots of little pecks turning into something deeper.

He put his hand on her thigh, near her knee, and slid it up her leg, feeling the still smooth skin beneath his fingers. She put the brakes on that, putting her hand on top of his, but still continuing to kiss her boy. He rewarded her by not trying harder, but it was a pyrrhic victory, because he turned a sensual act into tickles. While her powerful physical responsiveness was a benefit in more passionate endeavors, it also made her horribly ticklish, both things he took advantage of.

"Hey, knock it off you!" Barbara said between giggles. "I can't kick your ass for this!"

"I can though. Knock it off mijo." They heard Hector say. "If you two knock over my new keyboard, I'll have you both doing my lawn until it's paid off."

That quickly stopped their behavior. "Sorry Papi."

"It's okay, just be careful. I heard you two down here playing though, I couldn't keep away. Music is how I won Maria's heart." Hector said as he sat down on the small loveseat against the wall. "And dancing, but _somebody_ never could get the hang of it. I'm glad it didn't get in his way."

Deke just shrugged. "Not my strong suit."

"We can't all be perfect Mijo. I wanted to ask, where are you two staying?" Hector asked, though he was pretty certain he knew the answer already.

"The old house." Deke said casually. Barbara wasn't sure how his parental figures would take to the two of them alone like that, but her boy had answered easily enough. "It needed somebody in it, for a little while at least."

"It needs love within the walls Mijo." Hector said, his inner poet coming out. "It's been too long without it."

"Es verdad." Deke said, and spent a long moment looking at his love. She noticed him and smiled, those blue eyes so damn bright. After a moment, she took on an amused and puzzled look. By way of explanation, he bottled some of how he felt and pushed it towards her. When she felt the pressure, she allowed it in, and was able to taste what he was feeling.

The sensations were warm, strong, and comfortable, but more important, not at all overwhelming. She was able to just experience it, and let it pass naturally. "Sorry Mist… erm, Hector. We were being rude." Barbara said, poking her boy in the abs.

"Yeah, doing the brain thing, sorry Papi." Deke said, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"It's no problem. The pizza should be here soon, that's actually why I came down here." Hector said. "I got your favorite Mijo."

Deke just turned to his beloved. "You are gonna love this."

* * *

Barbara had indeed loved it, but her stomach less so. She felt as though she might burst, even now, hours after lunch and some errand running. They'd eaten, talked a while, and had basically taken the chance to get to know her. The Delgado family was extremely welcoming, even though she got mixed signals from Maria. Barbara wasn't sure if she was being judged, or measured, but she didn't get the feeling that there was malice.

It was different from the other boys she'd gone out with. Mostly because she'd dated, not committed, but she hadn't met parents before. She knew why she'd insulated boys from her father, but she wasn't sure why the converse was so far true. She was reasonably certain that it wasn't out of shame, and only once or twice were her dates ever really hyperfocused on sex. She had to assume it was something to do with mothers having strong opinions on who could or couldn't see their boys.

"What are you thinkin' about?" Her boy asked. She was sitting leaned up against him and between his legs, her back against his chest, while they looked out over the field next to his house. The air was filled with tiny yellow-green flickers, the fireflies (they were called lightning bugs here) doing their summer dance, seemingly just for them.

"It just hit me that I've never really committed to a person before." She said, resting her head back against his shoulder. He kissed her on the temple for it, and nuzzled her.

"Getting second thoughts?" He asked her, not sensing distress on her, and in this close proximity, even the best poker face wouldn't hide it. "Mami can be kind of intense."

"No Cowboy, no regrets." She said as a lightning bug landed on her arm for a moment. She watched its bottom light up green before flittering off. "What about you?"

"Oh hell no, none." Deke said, kissing her temple again. Barbara had noticed a long while ago that he had a habit of raining tiny kisses down on her when they'd cuddle up like this. It was one of her favorite qualities of his. "I love you Barbara Joan."

"I love you too Marshall Deacon." She replied, turning her head to nuzzle into his neck. He snickered and reflexively twitched from being tickled, which brought a pained noise he tried to hide. "I can move." She offered.

In answer, Deke just wrapped his arms around her. She took his hands and held them against her body. A cool wind blew across the trees, carrying the scent of night flowers and honeysuckle, serving to backdrop the low setting sun over the treeline. "It's beautiful here." Barbara observed.

"It has its moments." Deke said, his voice echoing through his chest and into hers. "Though it's never been more beautiful than tonight."

"Excuse me sir, but are you trying to hit on me?" Barbara said, showing him the tip of her tongue.

"I dunno, maybe. Is it working?"

"It might be, so long as you think you're up for it." She said, worried that trying to please her would aggravate his injuries, which would sort of defeat both her enjoyment and his. He apparently had his own plans about this though, which began to reveal when he leaned forward slightly with her, and began kissing and nibbling along her neck.

Goosebumps, always with the damn goosebumps, erupted across her arms and chest as she inhaled, making a pleased sound. His hands worked their way up her arms to her shoulders, where he brushed her hair out of his way.

Barbara felt his hands slide down the front of her shoulders, barely grazing her breasts. Immediately, her body reacted, causing her nipples to stiffen, though he continued the motion and pulled her shirt up. Stopping at her sternum, he put one hand low against her stomach, the warmth of his touch doing as much for her as the feeling of his lips on her skin.

She shivered as his other hand crept up her body to rest against her cheek, using it to gently guide her head to more advantageous positions to reach. He was lighting her fire, but taking his sweet time to do it. She couldn't help but move against his body, she was almost as kinetic as she was vocal.

He nibbled at her earlobe, something she seemed to enjoy doing to him, and was rewarded with a quiet whimper. A smile spread across his face at that. He could have just started listening to her thoughts, but he was having too much fun exploring without using his talents. Besides, there were plenty of times she'd do things to him that he didn't know he wanted, until she did them, it was a learning experience.

He kept at her for a while, observing her very enjoyable reactions, before going further. He pulled her tee shirt up over her breasts and slipped a hand between her skin and the soft material. When his fingertips brushed across her nipple, she made a small low moan, and when he pinched it lightly, she drew in a sharp breath, the sensation electric.

Barbara was feeling perfectly blissful as he pulled her shirt over her head, saving her the trouble. The cool night air, so different than the oppressive heat of the day, felt refreshing on her increasingly bare skin. She raised her arm up and around, resting her hand on the back of his head, letting her fingers slip and tangle into his hair.

Deke moved the hand against her abdomen down, slipping into the front of her shorts. The way his fingertips tickled her as he moved made her shiver in excitement, which seemed to work well for him. When he got past the waistband of her panties, he felt the still very smooth skin around her most secret place. The fabric covering her was soaked already, a testament to his efforts.

Barbara reached down with her free hand and undid the snap and zipper of her denim shorts, allowing him much easier access. In response, he lightly stroked her opening, feeling her arousal. Lacking anything better to do with her free hand, she placed it over top of his, feeling his hand tease and toy with her.

The electric fire within Barbara began whipping up brighter as he dipped his fingertip into her, sinking in only a little. He explored her, trying to better learn her body, which suited her just fine as she relaxed into him even further. He hadn't stopped his attention on her neck either, still kissing and nibbling at her. The sensations would go between conflicting and complimentary at times, keeping her on her toes.

As Deke brushed her opening, he noticed her free hand move away from his to her own breast, which she gripped and squeezed more tightly than he would have considered. The sight of her touching herself was a powerful image too, the way she kneaded her own skin and pinched at her own nipples. She apparently wanted to go further, and faster, so he obliged her, flicking his finger against her nub.

The spark shot across her body, which forced another whimpering moan, louder this time. He began to make small circles across her most sensitive place. Barbara gripped his hair tightly, trying hard not to yank, as he went to work on her. He made no pretense to really teasing her, no building her orgasm up and pulling it away too soon. Instead, Deke just worked torturously slow.

She could feel it building, the explosion behind her eyes threatening to happen. Every part of her wanted to ask him to go faster, and in her state, her request couldn't be anything but pure eroticism, but she struggled to let her boy work, knowing her patience would pay off.

He did pick up the pace though, his wrists starting to pain him. He could have shut down his pain receptors, but he was deeply committed to getting her off the old fashioned way. Barbara whimpered and bucked against his body as he used two fingers, one to either side, to stroke against her quickly.

Barbara's body trembled as she felt the inevitable creeping up on her. When he'd put more direct contact, more pressure against her, the blackness and the stars took her, causing her to pinch down tightly on one of her nipples, which only compounded the sensations. She moaned loudly through panting breath, her body to ripple and shake.

Remembering a previous reaction, as she climaxed, he slipped his finger deep into her, and began stroking her inner walls with that same come hither motion that had done good things for her in the past. In the depths of one orgasm, Barbara felt herself sinking into another, this one ripping across her body, leaving her arms and legs numb. This did elicit a scream, and much more.

Reflexively, she pushed into that full body explosion. Deke, still working to please her, was surprised as her body gave release, quite thoroughly soaking his hand and her pants. Her body went perfectly still for a moment as she was overwhelmed by the sensations. He slowed himself down quickly, but didn't stop abruptly, not wanting to take her from what he'd done to nothing in an instant.

"Oh. My. God!" Barbara said several moments later, once she could formulate coherent thought. Her limbs were still numb, though she tried desperately to untangle her hand from his hair. He patiently let her without complaint, though she was sure she'd yanked more than once while her body spasmed in climax.

She wiped at her eyes, which had watered while she'd clenched them tight in orgasm, and felt her boy's excitement against her back and bottom. "You're gonna have to give me a minute." She muttered breathily, trying to speak clearly, but still feeling wrecked at his attention.

"I'm good babe, this one's on me." He said, neglecting to say literally. He withdrew his hand from her panties and, as surreptitiously as possible, wiped his hand on his own jeans.

"Are you sure?" Barbara said, her head rolling around slowly to glance at him. "I did kinda just pee on your hand. I feel like reparations are in order."

Deke shrugged at her. "Nah, I know that trick wrecks you, so you're off the hook, also I knew you might cut loose a little going in. I bought the ticket so I'll take the ride."

"You're certain? I can tell part of you wants it." She said, and wiggled her bottom against him, though the effort felt a bit halfhearted; her muscles still not exactly wanting to behave.

"Well yeah, he does that, but I'm fine. Besides, I wanted to do this blind, no powers or anything, and I can barely handle you on a good day. Catch me tomorrow though." He said, kissing her at the very corner of her eye.

"Ooookay then." Barbara said, secretly relieved, trying to stand up. She'd have to toss these shorts and panties into the wash immediately, but she was going to change clothes when they went inside anyway. Deke rose behind her, going slow to try and mitigate the pain. He grabbed her shirt for her, but scowled at the vicious ache in his body. He'd hoped to dodge another painkiller, but it was looking like that wasn't going to be the case.

Deke followed his girl into the house, and watched her peel herself out of the rest of her clothes. He took them, and added his own clothes to the mix, and tossed them into the washer. Barbara didn't miss the thoughtless ease at which he'd stripped before her. Even after they'd made love a few times, he still seemed shy about undressing in front of her.

She also couldn't ignore his body, still very plainly aroused. She instinctively wanted to take another go at convincing him to let her reciprocate, but her rational mind reminded her that such behavior was not something she was interested in. She instead made a mental note that she owed him one. They didn't hover favors over one another, but it'd be fun all the same.


	22. Chapter 22

July 20th  
Flatwoods Kentucky  
2300 EST

Barbara was washing herself up in the shower when she heard the door creak open. Peeking out the curtain, she saw her boy set a towel on the sink for her, a thin camisole and clean panties sitting on top. She smiled sweetly at him as he left her to bathe in peace. Her body, still the perfect storm of 18 year old hormones, wished he'd join her, but the quiet tremors still causing her muscles to quiver squashed that instinctive want.

She dried and dressed quickly after her shower, and paused to look at her body in the mirror. Vanity wasn't a common sin for her, but she'd felt pretty all day. With her skin still flush from orgasm and hot water, she couldn't deny she felt rather sexy too. It had taken her a while to realize what her boy was seeing in her. In her mind she was still the awkward, coltish little girl who'd sprouted boobs overnight and had no idea how to work around them.

The people whose opinion she respected though, they spoke well of her, so the rest of the world be damned. One of those people, she was intent in spending some more time with. Barbara stepped outside of the bathroom, taking a moment to adjust the girls in the cami top until she was satisfied, before peeking into his bedroom. When she saw it was empty, she walked downstairs, moving with a silence that was learned and then unlearned.

On the couch, her boy was stretched out, staring at the ceiling, fiddling with the remote to the television. "You okay there Cowboy?" Barbara asked as she moved down the stairs. She saw his eyes open and his jaw drop a little as she walked.

How could it not though? Even in a plain white spaghetti strap top and simple bikini briefs, her hair still wet, she was stunning. The way the muscles in her legs rippled, and the way she put her weight on her toes and the balls of her feet, like a predatory animal, he was beginning to rethink her offer from earlier.

"I'll take it as a yes?" She said, him still just looking at her. He finally nodded and patted the couch next to him. Happily, she curled up in the corner of the sectional, nuzzling against him. When he flicked the video source on the tv to the bluray player, and she saw the logo for Firefly, she felt the need to confess.

"This is the only time I will break your heart." She said to him, and in her own quietly geeky way, she was dead serious.

"What?" He said, not sure what she was going on about. Icy dread clawed at him, was she going to leave him after they watched this show?

"Thirteen episodes and a movie. That's it." She said. "But you'll love it, I promise."

"I love you." He said, trying to beat his insecurities down with the biggest stick he could muster. He'd never speak up about it, but when she pulled this kind of stuff, his thoughts went extremely bleak, extremely quick.

"I love you too Cowboy." Barbara said, and hit the button for the pilot episode as she snuggled onto her boy.

* * *

A trilling racket woke Barbara up. Her eyes opened quickly, but she felt like she'd been blinded. There was nothing but pitch darkness wherever she looked, and she wasn't on the couch she'd last remembered laying on. Immediately, her instincts kicked into gear, breaking down her situation to be analyzed.

She was cool from the waist up, but her legs were warmer. She was on something soft. Aside of the trilling, she could hear grumbling. Total darkness. An arm around her. "Deke, babe, your phone's going off." She said once she realized where she was.

Her boy grumbled again and lifted his phone, the light from the screen offering remarkable illumination in the otherwise dark room. "Damn alarm." He groused, shutting the thing off. "Eyes." He said, counted to three in his head, and flicked a clumsy gesture towards the wall. He didn't need to see in this room, so intimately familiar with it.

The lights came on, though a single twenty watt bulb didn't offer the most perfect lighting. Barbara, not certain what he'd meant by eyes, had done the smart thing and covered hers. She opened them slowly, letting her eyes adjust to the change. She glanced at her boy, who was struggling to get himself functional. He was fiddling with his phone, still battling with shutting the alarm off.

"What's wrong?" Barbara asked, taking his phone from his hands gently and killing the alarm. He'd set it for nine in the morning, which seemed awfully late for her. She knew she passed out around one, so she should have been up by around seven. Then it hit her, with no natural light in the room, her circadian rhythms had nothing to react to.

He muttered more, and tried to roll over, and only succeeded in wallowing on her for a moment. She was about to get really concerned when he seemed to snap himself out of it. "Sorry," he said, pulling himself up. "I fell asleep in a deep trance. Kinda messes with me. I didn't mean to worry you."

"Okay, apology accepted." She said, and rubbed her eyes. "Why do you keep it so dark in here?"

"Headaches." Deke said, scrubbing his hands through his mane of hair. "It's why I sleep in the cold too." He said, and put his hand on her arm, comforted that she wasn't cold to the touch.

Well, that made sense she supposed. She'd noticed he kept his room at his base cold as well, but had never really concerned herself enough to ask why. "Did you bring me up last night?"

"Yeah, I didn't want to wake you up, you looked so peaceful." He said, a distant happy look on his face.

"Because I felt at peace, silly." She said, and kissed him on the nose. She slipped out of bed, and opened the door to the room, heading across the hall to handle her morning routine. Her boy was, in her experience, the kind to lounge for a minute before really waking up, so she usually seized dibs on the bathroom.

They swapped places when she was finished, allowing her to go back to his room to dress for the day. She went through her duffel and pulled out one of the tee shirts she'd liberated from him, and tossed on a pair of shorts. Silently, she reminded herself to buy him a couple of shirts to make up for her scavenger's ways.

She heard his footsteps, but that didn't stop her from being surprised at finding his hand on her bottom, giving a firm squeeze. "Having fun?" She asked, turning around to look at him with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh you bet." Her boy said. He was only in his underwear, so Barbara had a good chance to look at him. Even in the dim light of his bedroom, she was able to see the bruising which had mottled his entire body was dramatically diminished. Not gone, but well on its way. "See something you like?"

"A few things yes." She answered. "You're healing well." She mentioned. There was plenty of things she liked seeing, but his recuperation was top on her list at the moment.

"Yeah, I'm payin' for it too." He drawled, rooting through his old dresser, pulling out a very beat up looking tank top and some cutoff jeans. "I could eat an entire farm right now."

His metabolic powers required serious fuel, and stimulating the body's natural healing process was probably the most intensive act he could perform. Affecting another person wasn't quite so draining, but healing himself was positively grueling, though the payoff was much quicker.

Barbara tossed him a pair of socks and slipped into the rest of her clothes. "I'll do breakfast if you want to get started on things."

This was an agreeable arrangement. "Sure." Deke said, and headed downstairs. By the time Barbara made it down behind him, he'd already swiped her phone and plugged it into the home theater, making some of her favorite songs thrum through the house.

She made quick work of breakfast. With the fridge having not been used in over a year, a smell had begun to set up, so their grocery trip yesterday was mostly dry and bottled things. They'd get fresher foods later in the day, so for now, she made some toast and cereal (the boy was a sucker for Super-O's, despite her trying to convince him not to beeline directly for sugary cereal.) with OJ.

They ate quickly and quietly, just making faces and stealing glances from one another. Barbara couldn't resist some innocent footsie with her boy though, keeping it playful, for now. Once they were finished eating, she chose the kitchen to begin with.

As was her nature with any task, the only way to describe her work was to make it her bitch. The dishes were in the dishwasher with no hesitation, and she began tackling the floors while they went through the cycle. Refusing to just clean things, everything became a challenge. She would purposefully work herself into corners, forcing her to apply her acrobatic skills to not tread where she'd mopped. The counters were scrubbed while balancing on her toes. Changing the dishes in the washer was an exercise in juggling.

In the living room, Deke shot a quick video of her on his phone, and felt inspired. Four rags, two dusters, and a ruined shirt began swirling around him, floating off to do chores at his bidding like the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Each individual object worked around the room, forcing him to divide his attention, not only for the things he controlled, but also for the things they were cleaning. One error in focus could cause something to fall, break, or fly across the room in a ballistic trajectory.

Despite the air conditioner running, the effort was causing beads of sweat to form on his brow. The woman he loved was in the kitchen, sharing in the efforts to restore this house to a home. One slip could cause his mother's crystal picture frame to fly off and injure her, or worse. It could also just fall and break. Neither of these outcomes was suitable.

Barbara, bent over in the refrigerator, was growing concerned at a lack of catcalling. She'd been occasionally wiggling her bottom at her boy, and had expected at least a whistle from him. When she stood up to see why, she just perched on one of the kitchen chairs and watched him. His hands were flitting about in small, efficient movements, and sweat was beginning to pour down his face and chest. Absently, she noticed it was getting warmer in the house, though that might have just been her.

She sat, eyes open in wonder, as he worked, as amazed at this as he was by her thought processes. Occasionally, a small knickknack would lift up as a rag passed beneath it, sometimes wiggling precariously as it happened. Given he was working at seven times the efficiency, his work was done quickly. Each item he released his grip on allowed him greater control of the rest, until he was left with a well dusted room.

"Hey you." Deke said, only just now noticing his girlfriend looking at him, and seeming surprised. Wasn't she in the middle of quite literally juggling dishes?

"Hey you back." She said, and decided this was a moment she wanted to keep to herself. She showed him the tip of her tongue and went back to scrubbing the fridge, leaving him puzzled as he plugged in the vacuum.

Before long, that hot dusty smell was driven from the ground floor, replaced by the scent of cleaning products and carpet deodorizer. Deke assaulted the downstairs bathroom as Barbara finished the dishes, again cheating horribly by using his powers to wield a scrub brush.

Since he was only operating that one object remotely, she tossed a towel at him as she transferred her clothes from the washer to the dryer. The memory of his attention to her last night was still very fresh in her mind, leaving her having to fight off her desire. Deke wiped his face and brow off, and tossed the towel over his shoulder. He let the brush land gently in the tub and made a tickling gesture towards her, and how is that even fair? Barbara giggled at the light brushstroke motions being made against her body from so far away.

"Okay Cowboy." She said, realizing she was hearing songs on her phone for the second time, on a very long playlist. "Break time."

"Yeah, that's not a bad idea." He said, and glanced back at the tub in the downstairs bathroom. Deeming it satisfactory work, he rinsed it out with the handheld shower head, and left it to dry while he followed her into the living room. She stopped dead in her tracks, turned around, and kissed him, running her fingers into his sweaty hair and not caring in the slightest.

He kissed her back, pulling her body closer to his, and using both hands to grab her bottom, giving it a squeeze and a lift. When they broke for air, Deke looked down at his girl with a curious glance. "I thought seeing your man doing the cleaning wasn't a turn-on till after marriage?"

"It wasn't the cleaning Cowboy." She said, showing him the tip of her tongue. "I just happened to think that there hadn't been enough kissing yet today."

"Is there ever enough?" He asked, still holding onto her bottom, the muscles solid from her constant exercise.

"Not really, no. Shall we go ahead and pick up proper groceries?" Barbara said, expertly escaping from the tangle she'd caused. She'd woken _him_ up, and could feel it in their embrace, so if she hadn't, they'd never eat lunch, or dinner, or probably anything for a couple of days. She wouldn't leave him hanging though, she'd already committed to that particular plan.

"Lemme get changed." Deke said, peeling out of the sweat soaked tank top. He ran upstairs and changed into another of his old shirts, this one from before he'd lost all of his weight; it looking on him like his current shirts looked on her.

As he dashed downstairs, a muscle spasm struck him, reminding him that while he was doing an excellent job of healing himself, it wasn't as fast as he'd like it to be. Barbara saw it, the sudden shift in his gait. He went to walk it off, but it hadn't helped enough. "I guess you're driving again." He said, mildly disappointed.

She knew he wasn't upset that she was driving, instead because he didn't get to, and watched as he broke one of his painkillers in half, and then broke that again into a quarter, which he took with a swig of water from the faucet. She giggled at him, bending down carefully and turning his head sideways to do it, though the grimace on his face brought her to a stop. She considered her boy no different than anyone else on the League most days, her belief in him so strong, so it truly bothered her to see him seeming mortal. The day he got himself truly injured was a day she never wanted to see.

"I'm ready." He said, and much more slowly, headed to the car with his girl. Still not perfectly familiar with his hometown, she drove mostly with his direction. They hit the grocery store, a tiny little affair that would fit in the deli section of a Gotham supermarket. Their purchases were few but versatile. Barbara was picking through the produce for several minutes until Deke mentioned there were plenty of produce stands throughout the area, remembering her fondness for local sourcing.

After that, the game was afoot. She'd get to help out small farmers, and explore the area too, all the while cruising in a piece of classic muscle that would nearly kill her dad with jealousy to see. She must have been thinking that thought loudly, as Deke snapped a picture of her behind the driver's seat after they'd loaded their purchases in the back seat. He sent her the image, which she turned around and sent to her dad, anxiously awaiting his reply.

They drove around for a while, Deke just letting her go places and explore on her own while he lounged, lazy and doped in the front seat. They listened to the radio, turned up loudly, and sang along as they went.

Having strayed out of Flatwoods and into the larger city of Ashland, Barbara's phone chimed. She tossed to Deke to answer for her, and when he laughed long and loud at whatever she'd been sent, she had to assume it was her dad.

"He says you're grounded." Deke said, returning her phone to her at a red light to see for herself. In addition, he'd sent a selfie with a very disapproving look. Barbara giggled while sitting at the light, dashed off another text, and set her phone down.

Their drive lasted a couple of hours, during which time they did find a couple of roadside produce vendors. The pickings weren't the perfect offerings in more agrarian locations, but they would certainly do. Once complete, the two headed back to Deke's family home. A house Barbara was beginning to fall in love with as much as the boy who'd lived there.

While she knew it was extremely soon to consider anything in earnest, she could see herself living there with him, maybe using the place for vacations away from Gotham and their busy lives after college.


	23. Chapter 23

July 21st  
Flatwoods Kentucky  
1420 EST

When they got back home (And she was catching herself referring to it as such. She'd lived in apartments all her life, her dad seemingly allergic to buying a proper house just outside of the city despite his pay as commissioner.) the two divided chores again. Deciding to do the cooking, Barbara shooed her boy out of the kitchen and sent him upstairs to finish the cleaning job. He'd already expressed a desire to leave his mother's room untouched, which she had respected, but the bathroom and hallway floors needed some attention.

Barbara decided on chicken and quinoa with red peppers and asparagus. None of the items took altogether that long to cook, though she added extra time by focusing on seasoning the chicken correctly. Since his health and body came from the use of his powers, her boy ate like a garbage disposal. She wasn't the kind of girl to tell him how to eat, especially with all the trouble she had with her own father in that regard, but if she was living with him, she at least needed to mind her own diet, so making certain the food was palatable was important.

She started by rubbing the chicken down with salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, cumin, and a dash of ancho chili powder. This, she set to the side to begin working its way into the meat, and began cutting the vegetables. She knocked the base of the stalks off the asparagus. They were very fibrous, good for stocks but not for chewing on. The red pepper she sliced into thin strips. The quinoa went in the moment the chicken stock began boiling, which happened about the same time the skillet had grown hot. After that, she broke apart several cloves from a bulb of garlic and began mincing them down, her knife skills quite impressive. She made a mental note to thank Alfred for the time he'd taken helping her learn to cook. She was no sorceress in the kitchen, but she was at least capable of feeding herself and whoever else she felt like.

Barbara splashed a bit of olive oil and a small pat of butter into the skillet and laid the chicken in, letting it brown and cook through. She wished she had a griddle pan for the asparagus, but had to settle for using the broiler of the oven to do the job. She drizzled oil and salt on the stalk vegetable, laid them out evenly in the pan, and stuck them under the broiler once the quinoa was finished. She tossed that in the skillet with the chicken, garlic, and red pepper strips, tossing it about to let the flavors mingle.

She was about to turn to call him down for lunch, but he was already standing in the doorway between kitchen and living room, leaning against the doorframe. His gaze was hungry, this time not for her. It was excusable, she was quite pleased with the smells the kitchen was filled with.

"I'll set the table." Deke said, wandering towards the cabinets to withdraw plates, and taking silverware from the drawers. He gave her a swat on her bottom as he passed, which drew another view of the tip of her tongue. Barbara got the food off the heat and began plating the moment she was able, and sat down across from the love of her life. She remembered the look on his face the first time she'd tried his cooking, like he wanted to ask her to prom but was too shy to do it. She assumed this was the exact look on her face.

Deke bit in and chewed thoughtfully. He noticed her expression and smiled at her. "This is good, but I wish you'd made yourself some too."

She flicked the lid to her bottle of aloe juice at him with a look of protestation on her face. He caught it telekinetically and returned it to her. "Seriously, this is awesome Babs. I generally hate quinoa but this is pretty decent."

Barbara beamed with pride, taking a quick bite of her own. Not her finest work, but she was happy with it. Happy enough, in fact, that she snapped a quick picture of the table and put it out on Instagram. "Thank you lovely." She said, playing demure.

Deke had to restrain the inner caveman, and use some halfway decent table manners. He still wasn't quinoa's biggest fan, but it was edible, and the chicken was great. He ate, trying not to wolf it down, and enjoyed their meal.

Once they'd finished, he took over the dishes, letting her have some time to let her food settle. When he got back into the living room, she was stretched out on the couch, reading something on her phone. "Hey Cowboy, come here a minute please." She said, patting the couch next to her. Happy to oblige, he sat next to her, and wrapped his arm around her.

"Do you think you'll be fighting crime and saving people for the rest of your life?" She asked, the question coming out of left field.

"I dunno." He said, leaning back against the couch. "Why?"

"I want to know." She said, curling up into him and looking at him. "Inquisitive girl, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember." He said, and thought about his response. "I suppose, if I get good enough, yeah. So long as I'm not dangerous to the people I'm trying to help, I will be. It helps me like what I see in the mirror. Besides, can you imagine how many metas there are out there with abilities, and just use them to get by?"

"I can imagine. Batman cooked up this algorithm to calculate the probable number of metas and others with extranormal abilities who choose to neither help nor hurt others, and the numbers are kind of staggering. He did some research and figured there's about one tenth of a percent of the world's population which are metahuman in some manner or another. That leaves over three hundred thousand people in the United States alone. You see that many people on the news?"

"Wow, no." He said. He never thought the number could be so high.

"Yeah, so there's that. Anyway, you sound willing to dedicate your life to the mission, am I hearing you right?" She asked this in an almost interviewing fashion, which to be honest, was kind of weirding him out.

"Sure, I suppose, yes, yes I would." He answered, but this was starting to baffle him. "Can you please tell me why you want to know?"

"I'll tell you after I get the answers I'm looking for. I don't want to influence your decisions at all, so I kind of have to do it this way." She said, once again pleased he wouldn't just look into her thoughts just to get to the heart of the matter. "What would cause you to stop with the crimefighting, if anything?"

"If I lost someone too close because of it, would be one, but it'd be a hell of a swansong ass whoopin' when I did. I imagine if I ever became a dad, I'd probably distance myself a little bit, go to reserve status or something, or whatever else. Still help with the big stuff but not do patrols."

Barbara considered his answers. Artemis had been emailing her, and had gotten her thinking about things, and that had combined with some of how she'd been thinking the past two days. Her clock wasn't ticking, and her career was still the top goal in her life, but she needed to know how serious to keep taking things. She wouldn't just drop her boy, she _did_ love him after all, but having an understanding of her relationship was becoming a necessity. They had, in recent days, gone from playfully dating to realizing and voicing that they did indeed love one another. It wasn't just dates and sex anymore. She was perfectly committed, and he left no doubt that he was either.

"Okay, I'm satisfied." She told him, and considered leaving it at that for a while, just to bedevil him and keep him on his toes, but he was getting that spooked look, and she didn't want to be mean. "We keep finding reasons to live with one another, we're lovers in love, and we're heading off to the same college in about a month. That alone is enough to make a girl think, but we're both on the same path outside of that too. I just wanted to make sure our opinions about it were compatible."

"And, are they?" He asked. She was such a unique girl but figuring her out was an exercise in frustration. Again, something no psychic should ever admit.

"Yep, close enough to make me happy." She said, kissing him on the nose. "You don't ever think about the future of our relationship?"

"Kinda, I guess. Mostly just me being insecure, like, the day you decide you need more out of life than me, or the day you think I'm holding you back." He said, not particularly wanting to talk about this subject at all.

"I'm getting kind of annoyed at you thinking so low of me sometimes." Barbara said, and while annoyed was perhaps too strong a word, it didn't mean she wasn't hurt by what he'd said, even inadvertently. "I work hard at not being a Hollywood girl, but you still seem to think that the movies and tv are how things always work. Nobody can hold me back from anything and you've been inside my head, so you know that, right?"

Deke nodded, already feeling very small.

"And I presume you think once we get to college I'm going to go gaga over the other boys and wonder what it's like under their sheets, maybe see if they can offer something different?"

Again, he nodded, and that shrinking feeling was not letting up. He could feel her emotional state change. She wasn't mad at him, not in the strictest sense. She was disappointed, sure. A little insulted too, but it was aimed, tightly.

"Deke, I'm going to use very coarse language, the kind I don't often use, to drive the point home. I do not let my pussy do my thinking for me, I am not some cock obsessed sorority girl, and most importantly, I am not shallower than a common fucking mud puddle."

Suitably cowed, it took him a minute to look at her, though when he did, and he saw her wiping her eyes, he felt like seppuku might be in order. "I will always put into this exactly what you do. I will often take it upon myself to put in more if the need arises. We started with crushes, but goddamn it, we're more than that now. I _know_ your rational brain knows this, what the hell do I need to do to get the rest of it to realize?"

As she spoke, her voice began to hitch as her tears began flowing. She no longer gave any damn whatsoever about crying in front of him, she was upset and frustrated. Deke started to speak but she interrupted him. "Just, trust me when I say, I made my choice and I'm happy with it, and put those horrible thoughts down before they kill you."

"I…" Deke began again, but dropped his words, gently but firmly pressing his forehead to hers and beckoning her. Feeling like this would be the most productive course to take, she allowed him to pull her.

Unlike previous times, where romance was the foundation, this joining was stormy, and dark. While their psyches were still luminous beings across a void, the touch of the two threw sparks. The ocean upon which they stood was now rocked by waves, the sky black and thick with storms.

The lightning and the thunder robbed him of his voice, but not his emotions, which he opened up to her. It was fleeting moments, hands slipping away from one another, fire turned to ice, passion turned sour. She felt his love, saw to the core of it, but saw the cage of fear surrounding it.

Barbara responded to this. A soulful anger welled up within her. What was theirs, this beautiful thing that chased her nightmares away, made her smile for no reason, and brought joy and exaltation to her mind, body, and soul, was trapped.

It was trapped by an evil, and what she did was put evil away and save people in trouble. She was the fucking Batgirl.

Instinctively, she knew her weapons. She tore at the iron weave surrounding what belonged to them, what was hers. It was given to her, and she would have it, as she gave to him. Her fury, righteous and strong, burned white hot as her hands reached deep. She dug her fingers in, and she pulled free that emotion, releasing it from its prison.

This was familiar, this sensation. She knew it at a level beyond intimacy, it was cosmic truth. This was the love she knew, and craved. She'd sell her soul for it, but it wasn't in its purest state, not yet. Like a chemical reaction, it required a catalyst. She had come into this, shadow and silence. No longer. She was light, glorious shining light, so radiant the darkness fled. She was the catalyst, or more properly, her own love, burning bright, pure, and unrestrained.

Now, it was actualized. Emotions fusing together and giving off energy. A star in the stormy void. The connection between them slipped, as though he was being yanked away. She moved to follow, to reconnect, but she was snapping backwards too. The opposite reaction indeed.

Barbara's eyes flew open, her heart thundering in her chest. She and Deke were still sitting there, foreheads pressed together, breathing the same air. She was dizzy, a bit disoriented, but her anger was dispelled. She didn't know when or how it happened, but they were clutching hands.

"What the hell was that?" her boy asked, and when the only psychic in the relationship is confused as to what had occurred, it might be time to evaluate the situation. She could see the veins in his neck, visibly pulsing in time to her own rapid heartbeat. His eyes were wide, pupils dilated. His gaze was far away, but coming into focus.

"I don't know." Barbara said breathlessly. She was hopelessly confused about her own actions, just going on instinct. "I just, I hated whatever it was in your head that wouldn't let go of you."

"Remind me," he said, and took a deep breath. "Remind me not to make you hate me."

"Did I do something wrong though? Did I hurt you?" She asked, realizing this was the mental equivalent of being given an inch and taking a mile. Worse, had she abused his trust? Mental rape? She shuddered at the thought.

"Oh God no." He replied, finally pulling his forehead away from her, to look at her properly, before tackling her onto the couch, which was quite surprising to her, so much so that she didn't actually let him tackle her, he just did it.

"I get it now." He said, listening to her giggles. "I never doubted you, despite what it sounded like. It was me that I doubted, but, yeah, I totally get it now."

She kissed her boy at that. It was deep, but not intense. It was intimate but not sexual. "So, are we over this whole thing now? Because, I think we're over this whole thing now." She asked once the moment had concluded itself.

"Absolutely." Deke replied. He didn't know what it was she did, but if nothing else, that incredibly powerful Id of his had been put in its place, at least as far as she was concerned.

"Is it seriously only four o'clock?" Barbara asked when she noticed the time on the wall clock. She'd set her phone down when he walked into the room, but she'd checked the time a moment before it. Only fifteen minutes had passed since they even began the conversation which spawned this.

"Psychic communication darlin'. Gotta love it." Deke said, still trying to regain control of himself. "Wanna go somewhere?"

Well, he was certainly feeling peppy. This boded well for her own emotional state. "Where?" She asked, wondering what he had in mind.

"Well, there's this place way out in the county that does dances every weekend. I thought you might like to go." He said to her, feeling hopeful.

"I didn't exactly bring anything to wear to a dance." She said. He couldn't dance at all, she'd witnessed it, but like then, he didn't seem to care.

"Oh, it's not formal, just a simple country thing." He explained, rising from their laying position and helping her up. "Mom was about your size before she got sick, and I know she would have loved you from minute one, so I'm pretty sure raiding her closet would have been something she would have insisted on."

"You're okay with that?" Barbara asked. He had refused to even enter her room, so this had given her pause.

"Yeah, I mean, I'm not going in there with you, but seriously, Mom would have insisted. It'd be a nice way to honor her, y'know?" He said, seeming perfectly at ease. "Besides, if she could talk to us, she'd say she wasn't using them anyways."

"I wish I could have met her." Barbara said, putting her hand on her boy's cheek.

"Yeah." He said, and leaned into steal the kiss she was planning on planting on him.


	24. Chapter 24

July 21st  
Flatwoods Kentucky  
1900 EST

Deke was in the shower while Barbara went through the closet in the other room. She had felt uncomfortable going through the woman's clothing at first, but it had allowed her a chance to get to know the woman who'd brought her boyfriend up. Several sets of scrubs hung in the closet, along with some simple but pretty dresses. One, a white sun dress, she laid carefully on the bed. She also flipped through some jeans, and finally found a pair that would probably fit with a little effort.

Barbara got on her knees and began looking through the floor of the closet, and stumbled across an old photo album. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she flipped through it, seeing a timeline of her boy's life. The first picture, the day Deke was born, showed her enough. He and his dad looked remarkably similar, the same high cheekbones and squared chin. Deke's hair and eyes came from his mother, dishwater blonde and sharp green. Even as wiped out from childbirth as she looked, Barbara couldn't deny his mother was beautiful, with a kind smile.

A few pages of baby pictures later, each of them cute as could be, and she could see his early life in school. He wasn't kidding about being a big kid. As the time progressed in picture form, she could see him getting bigger and bigger, and around third or fourth grade, she could also see him hiding himself, shrinking from the camera, dressing in baggier, more concealing clothing. By his junior year school pictures, he was more than big enough to be a threat to his health.

There were no pictures of him with friends, just some occasional shots of other kids in the background. It explained why he'd glommed to her so quickly, she'd taken the time to talk to him. Sure, it was in a tense moment, and she was there fighting crime, but all the same.

Barbara set the album aside when she heard the water shut off in the bathroom. She checked out a shoebox, and opened it, expecting to find boots, but she slammed the lid quickly closed, her face beet red. "Damn, Mrs. O'Connelly." She muttered, trying to unsee the sight of her 'helpers'. Barbara couldn't fault her though, Deke said she was nineteen when she'd given birth to him, which made her twenty six when she lost her husband. She never dated after that, not with any real intent. Silently, Barbara prayed she'd never know that kind of loneliness.

Gingerly, she opened another box, and was relieved to see a pair of short cowboy boots, also in her size. These, she also set aside, and checked some of the dresser drawers. These were filled with more comfortable clothing, which she picked through with just as much care as she had the closet.

"You should keep that shirt." She heard her boy say from the doorway. Barbara was holding up an old Alice in Chains shirt that had most certainly seen better days. The fabric felt almost impossibly soft from the wear though. "It was one of her favorites. She'd hate it not being worn."

Barbara turned to smile at her boy, and had to take a moment. He was wearing only a towel, and it was draped over his shoulder. "If you still want to go to this thing, you might wanna get dressed before I remember you deserve some attention." She said to him. All day, he'd give her these looks, and then he'd gotten all sweaty earlier, and she'd made the mistake of rousing him up with a deep kiss, while she was pressed against his body, and then changing out the laundry, which reminded her of last night. She'd been feeling turned on all day and being presented with, with _that_ was in no way helping. Her whole business was in turmoil at the moment.

Of course, he'd noticed how she'd been acting all day. Even after their rather bizarre fight, which had left her with a stronger craving than he'd expected. When he realized how she was feeling last night, he'd decided to keep toying with her libido. He refused to do so with his powers, as that was plain unfair and unkind, but he'd still tried to subtly keep her engine going, figuring by the time they got home, it'd be worth the trouble.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that." He said with a sheepish grin. Unlike the rest of the day, him arriving naked to talk to her was unintentional. There was a time and a place for romantic teasing, but he'd let his thoughts get the better of him.

He ducked into his bedroom and pulled on his outfit for the day. Jeans and a red checked button down with the sleeves rolled up, left open over a tank top. Simple, honest, and comfortable. Triple threat threads for the humble little affair they were attending.

When the door opened a few minutes later, he had to amend his appraisal slightly. "You look hotter now than you did in that dress in Monaco." He said with absolute honesty.

Barbara blushed at him, though secretly she was pleased. The jeans she was wearing seemed to be painted on, they were so tight. The dress she'd found was entirely too short to wear without something to cover her legs, but had substituted wonderfully as a scoop neck top. The full length mirror in the other room had let her get a good look, and she had to admit, her legs and butt were on point. She was perhaps putting a bit more of her breasts on display than she normally would, given the snug fit of the top she was wearing, but she wasn't leaving with anyone but the man she arrived with.

"So, I look the part I take it?" She asked her boy, leaning into him for a kiss. He happily obliged her and took her gently by the hips.

"You do indeed. You look stunning." He told her, and placed another kiss on her. "You chariot awaits you."

"You're good to drive?" she asked. She hadn't seen him take a painkiller all day, and he'd spent a couple of hours on the couch in a trance to accelerate his healing further.

"Yeah, I may be feeling rough afterwards though, but for now, I'm actually feeling really great." He said, and he meant it. He lacked the science to explain what had happened when they'd crashed into each other's minds earlier, but whatever really happened beneath her actions, he found living being just a little bit easier. His powers felt more natural, and his perceptions seemed clearer. He was going to wait until later to mention it to her, when their thoughts weren't so hazed by their hormones.

"Good, let's keep it that way, shall we?" She asked, and left the house with him, stopping him by the kitchen door to put his hair up into a half tail. She had gone with a simple high ponytail and was loving the decision in the heat.

They piled into the car, and Deke took a moment before starting the engine. His dad had taken his mom out on their first date in this car and he wanted to appreciate it. Barbara, the most patient girlfriend on Earth, just smiled at him as he had his moment. She didn't know what it was, but he was pushing his own feelings outward, and they seemed to have gravity.

After a short moment, Deke brought the Chevelle to life, the huge engine roaring. The beast within had slept a while, but after getting a chance to stretch its legs, it was ready to run. "Don't get us pulled over." Barbara warned him as he was about to pull off the driveway and onto the road.

"Local cops couldn't catch this if they wanted to." Deke said with a wink, revving the engine.

"Deacon." Barbara scolded. He pulled out quite casually, and snickered as he did. He was definitely feeling playful.

They drove for almost an hour, taking a winding, circuitous route through back road countryside. Barbara was in love with the sheer amount of green everywhere they went. Gotham was concrete and steel, glass and neon, and it would always be home for her, but the verdant beauty to be found in this small town couldn't be ignored.

It had its downside though. Many houses they passed were in poor repair, with blankets posted up for windows, and many more were simply abandoned, waiting for the grass and trees to reclaim them. Her boy seemed either immune, or accustomed to it, as he just drove on, occasionally sending a look her way as they chattered aimlessly.

When they arrived at their destination, a small community center which seemed to see a lot of use for being so far away from anything, Barbara could see people from many walks of life were there. Brand new BMW's sat next to trucks made in the eighties. Inside, she could hear the muted sounds of music.

"I've never done anything like this before." She said to Deke. "At all, like zero preparation."

"It's okay darlin'. Ain't nothin' to it." He drawled, a little heavier than usual. She wasn't sure if he was doing it intentionally or instinctively, but she loved it. "End of the day, it's just a get together with some music. Some people got together to put together something for people to do. They do a big charity thing for Christmas too."

"Okay then." Barbara said, taking his hand and heading inside. It really was as simple as he'd put it, just a lot of people dancing and having a good time. She presumed there wasn't any drinking, as nobody was checking ID's, and there were some young children running around playing, decked out in their own little duds. She found it completely adorable, and it reminded her that she'd sworn her dual careers wouldn't interfere with her having a family.

They grabbed drinks from the punchbowl and found a table off to the side, mostly to let their eyes grow acclimated to the dimmer light. It wasn't long, however, before Barbara was being whisked away to the dance floor, a rousing twangy country tune being played by a local band.

Yeah, he couldn't dance to save his life. This was just one more piece of incontrovertible evidence to the fact. Instead of retreating into his shyness, which had happened less and less as time went on, he just laughed with her.

He was lost in her, which was plainly obvious to anyone watching. Her touch, her smile, her laugh, her eyes, all of her was bewitching him. They danced like nobody was watching, neither of them having a half a clue how to go about moving pleasantly to the music. Just two kids in love.

After a few songs, they took their seats again to have a little more to drink. Barbara was about to say something flirty, when she saw her boy's eyes light up. "Hey Babs, you're about to have some competition."

"What?" She asked, and saw a little girl, no older than seven, dash straight to Deke. Barbara could handle that kind of competition. She was an adorable little redheaded girl with bright hazel eyes, in a little dress and boots.

"Babs, meet Lacy Adkins, the daughter of Doctor and Mrs. Adkins." Deke said, wrapping the little girl in a big hug. Lacy turned to look at Deke's girlfriend, and gave her an appraising look before deciding she was okay, and hugging her too.

"Deke, where'd you go? Daddy said you moved." The little girl asked, like she was running an interrogation.

"I did move. I went all the way to Gotham City." Deke explained, waving to her parents. When they saw she was in safe hands, the two of them headed to grab punch and snacks.

The little girl went wide eyed at that. "Did you get to see Batman and Robin?" She asked, and it was apparent this was very serious, need to know kind of information she wanted.

"Yes I did. And guess what?" Deke asked her, leaning down to her eye level.

"What?" Lacy asked, leaning in close enough to touch noses.

"There's a Batgirl, and I got to meet her too."

Barbara couldn't stifle a giggle at the sweet little girl's reaction. Her eyes grew even wider and her mouth opened in great surprise. "What's she like? Is she scary like Batman?" Again, Lacy absolutely needed to know these things.

"I guess she is if you're a bad guy. She's very tough, and she's very smart, but she's also very pretty too. I watched her take down a dozen bad guys." Deke explained, wanting to touch Barbara but also wanting to avoid any correlation between her regular and secret identities.

"I want to be Batgirl!" Lacy said, making it sound like this was her only goal in life, and in a way, it probably was. Barbara was blushing furiously at this. She'd heard many little girls want to be Wonder Woman, even a few who wanted to be Black Canary, or Hawkgirl or Zatanna. She'd never in her life expected she'd be a role model for a little girl.

"What do you think Babs?" Deke asked, looking at his beloved. He could feel the pride and happiness rolling off her in tidal waves. "You think she could be the next Batgirl?"

"I think so." Barbara said, beaming at the little girl. "I think she's tougher, smarter, and prettier than Batgirl already."

She couldn't contain herself, there was no way. Lacy clapped her hands and smiled a wide grin with a few missing baby teeth. "Are you Deke's girlfriend?"

"Yes I am." Barbara answered, noticing the girl's parents approaching. "I'm Barbara, It's nice to meet you." She added, offering the little girl a hand.

Lacy took and shook, and turned to her parents. "Mommy, Daddy! Deke met Batman and Robin and Batgirl!" She squealed as her parents approached.

"You did huh?" the Doctor said, offering Deke a hand. Deke rose, took his hand, and pulled it in for a hug.

"Sure did." Deke said, and offered a hand to Barbara. "Met this lovely lady too. This is Barbara. Babs, this is Doctor Richard Adkins and his wife Kathy. Doc Adkins is an orthopedic surgeon who works a lot with otra mami."

"A pleasure." Doctor Adkins said, shaking Barbara's hand. Deke hugged Kathy and stepped out of the way so the two women could meet.

"When'd you get back into town?" Kathy asked. Barbara noticed she also had a mop of unruly red hair, which explained her daughter's locks.

"Yesterday. We're in for the week while I get some stuff ready to go to college, and I couldn't not bring Babs to this." Deke said, slipping his hand into hers.

"Well, we'll let you two get back to it then." Kathy said, taking her husband and daughter by their hands. "Call us if you have a chance, we can have dinner."

Once they were gone, Barbara giggled again. "That little girl is too stinkin' cute." She said, still pulsing pure joy. Nobody would believe her if she said this had happened, except her dad. The story warranted explanation face to face, so she made a mental note to tell him when they got back to Gotham.

"She's a doll, yeah." Deke said, taking a sip of punch. "And your biggest fan already. I could see her little gears turning. There's going to be a Halloween costume happening."

Barbara blushed again, and took her boy towards the dance floor to cover it. She had donned the cowl to help her city, and had expected no recognition for her efforts at all. To get a little admirer, that was something extremely special.

Deke just drank in what she was giving off, letting the feeling fill him too. It set the mood for the rest of the night, the two of them dancing happily for several hours, until their feet were too sore to respond. The two young lovers stopped to wish the Lacy and her family a good evening, and headed back out to the car.

"Late dinner?" Barbara asked. There'd been little snack foods available but nothing of any real substance, and a night of dancing had left her positively starving.

"Yeah, you're doing that thing again." Deke said as he sat down in the driver's seat. When he popped the lock for her, she slid in and looked at him.

"What thing?" She asked as she slipped the boots off her feet.

"That thing where you're smart and know exactly what we need to do." Deke said, and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in for a kiss.

"I'm glad you're recognizing it Cowboy." She said, kissing him back.


	25. Chapter 25 (Lemon Squeezy)

July 21st  
Flatwoods Kentucky  
2325

They stopped for sandwiches at the grocery store, before heading back home. Barbara was surprised to see the store using whole grain seeded bread for their pre-made food, which made her feel better about eating bread so late in the evening. She'd still want a big breakfast tomorrow, but there was really nothing new about that.

Deke, as he'd expected, was feeling rough after all the dancing and carrying on. He popped another quarter of a painkiller, and washed it down with aloe juice, absently thinking between opioids and aloe juice, the aloe juice might be more addictive.

"So," He said to Babs as he cleaned up their small mess after dinner.

"Yes Cowboy?" She asked as she absently unlaced the front of her dress turned shirt.

"You are a woman of remarkable skill and beauty."

"Thank you for noticing." Barbara said, reading the intent in his eyes. "You are a man of great power and strength."

"I appreciate your kind observations." He said, and took her by the hand, guiding her to her feet. "I believe that we were made for each other."

Barbara followed him into the living room and up the stairs. "I agree, but I think we should test this theory. Maybe a couple of times."

She led him into his bedroom and picked up her duffel. "I'll be back." She said, shutting the door with a wink, and went into the spare bedroom being used as a catchall. She dropped her clothing quickly, anxious to breathe comfortably again. She felt attractive, but they were just too small for her.

Barbara withdrew a few items from her bag, and began dressing herself. She took a moment to run her fingers up her legs and across the front of herself, checking for prickly hairs. Satisfied that she was still good for the moment, she began slipping on the lingerie she'd brought.

A few days ago, Deke had asked what she'd said to her friends about their sex life, and while she had largely been honest in her explanation that she hadn't said much, it wasn't entirely true. She'd actually called Zatanna, and had talked to her at great length about the subject. Barbara had too many questions and she wasn't about to approach Black Canary or Selina, or God help her, Harley (though she'd apparently turned over a new leaf after leaving the Joker, there were still some obvious issues in asking that woman for sex advice.)

Zee had been a great help though. Able to skip teaching Barbara the actual process, she was able to focus more on finding and offering emotional and physical gratification. One of the things Zee had mentioned to Barbara was a simple piece of wisdom. If she felt attractive, she'd come off that way, and if it came off that way, her confidence would increase, making it better. Armed with that knowledge, Barbara had ordered herself a sexy little number off the internet.

She rolled her stockings on, smoothing them out with her hands before pulling the garter belt up and clipping her stockings on. She then pulled the tiny panties on which came with the set. Her last step was to put the corset on, clipping it on with her breath drawn in. It was dark green satin with black lace overlaid, the thong and garter belts matching. She mussed her hair up a little, and stopped in the bathroom to take a look.

She rarely felt all over attractive. Mostly she could recognize when she was having a good day, but in this moment, she knew she'd never felt more alluring. She freshened her lipstick and made a pouty face in the mirror, which elicited a giggle. Yeah, she was ready. She already felt terribly naughty, and firmly believed she needed to express herself. Just a quick moment to freshen her body up a bit, and it was time.

She swung her hips as she walked into the bedroom she was sharing with her boy. Inside, the bed had been turned down, and music was playing, specifically Portishead's Glory Box. He was speechless, just fumbling over the words he couldn't quite spit out. She loved it when he went mute, it meant he couldn't think clearly, and she was the reason for it. His ability to make her feel beautiful without saying a word was one of her favorite things about him.

Of course, Deke hadn't been idle either. He'd pulled his shirt off, but left his jeans on. There was still some marginal bruising to his body, but at this point he felt like it made him look cool, not beaten to hell. He hadn't counted on her bringing lingerie though. Already, his body was betraying his attempt at cool. He saw her set something on top of his dresser, but paid no attention to it, assuming it was her phone.

"Is that for me?" Barbara asked in a lusty tone as she walked up to him and put a hand to it. She was playing a character at this point, but already she was having fun with it.

Deke swallowed, and nodded. "Yeah." He replied, sounding a lot less cool now. She owned him at this point and they both knew it.

"Good to know." She said, leaning into his body. She pressed her breasts quite intentionally up against his chest as she turned her head up for a kiss. He obliged, but let her set the pace.

Barbara kissed her boy with soft grazes of her lips, occasionally flicking her tongue out to draw across his. He put his hands on her hips and pulled her closer, sliding his hands down to grip on her bottom. She giggled, and how she made that sound so naughty was a mystery to him. He also matched her with her kisses, their lips and tongues barely meeting before flittering away, only to join together again.

While she teased him with her lips, she was working on his belt, taking her sweet time with it. She refused to be defeated by it; this situation was way too hot for that kind of fumbling. She often let her hands drift as she worked to release the leather strip from his jeans, feeling across his stomach and chest, and other, more interesting locations.

Deke leaned down further and began kissing and nibbling on her neck, causing her to put her arm around the back of his head and get her fingers wrapped in his hair. Soft moans escaped her lips as he tasted her, the sensation sending tingles through her body. His hands, still gripping her bottom, kept squeezing and kneading, more firmly than he had done before, and she loved it.

It took a few more moments, but she finally released his belt, and went to work on the button and zipper of his jeans. She kissed him then, full on, crushing her lips to his. He was grateful she was relieving tension on his pants, as they had grown far too snug in the previous moments, the material trapping him making a somewhat painful prison. He wanted to pick her up and throw her onto the bed, but he ignored that desire. It was better the way she wanted.

Their tongues played a fierce game as they kissed, gaining and yielding as the moment demanded. Deke slid a hand up her back to get his fingers in her hair, but he slowed once he felt the smooth satin material of her corset. He couldn't help but take a moment to enjoy the tactile sensation, which suited Barbara just fine. His hand felt comforting against her back, and the extended touching served to build more confidence within her about her recent choices in life.

The last tooth of his zipper came unfastened after several more agonizing moments. The sudden freedom felt absolutely amazing to Deke, almost as though he could breathe again after being denied air. Barbara ended their kissing and stepped back just a bit, giving her boy the best bedroom eyes she could muster. "I think most of my work is done already." She said, sounding all manner of hot.

She slipped a hand into his jeans and took him in her grip, feeling his already serious arousal. Her boy leaned his head back, eyes closed, and inhaled slowly, loving the sensation of her hand lightly stroking and gripping him. She didn't keep this up long though, instead taking the waistband of his jeans and pulling them down. Naughty boy, he'd gone commando for this; she approved.

She dropped slowly to the floor in a squatting motion, pulling his jeans down with her. His shaft sprung free inches from her face, which is exactly what she wanted. Barbara pushed him onto the bed to have better access to him, and was surprised to notice the smell of baby wipes. Apparently, he'd decided to freshen up as well, a courtesy she well appreciated. They happily had sex while sweaty and dirty, but that didn't involve foreplay.

Deke watched her run the very tip of her tongue up and down his shaft, the sensation somehow delicate and firm. After a moment of this, she glanced up at him, her blue eyes framed beautifully in eyeliner. Like most any other male, the picture that created did wonderful things for him. He smiled at her, hoping it wasn't as predatory as it felt, and she took him in her mouth.

She felt triumph as he leaned back, propping himself up by his arms, and making a noisy exhale of breath. He was her first for anything sexual, so she had only him to practice on, when they had these opportunities. His reactions were an excellent measure of her progress though, and it was plain to see he was enjoying it. She might not be a master, but she didn't need to be. She was obviously good enough, and that's what counted.

She bobbed her head, slowly at first, before finding a steady rhythm. She added a hand to her efforts, using her other one to drag her nails down his abdomen and legs, just hard enough to not tickle. His noises were encouraging, going between deep moans and the occasional words. "Damn that feels good." He muttered as she took long swirling licks around him, bringing a smile to her face. He also brought a hand to the back of her head, but he didn't shove or guide. Instead, he seemed content to stroke her hair, an oddly sweet gesture.

She paid attention elsewhere, gently massaging and licking his pair, again pleased that he manscaped. She also nipped at his thigh a few times, letting her teeth scrape against the skin of his leg. She'd never actually bite him on the shaft, but teasing it was fair game.

She showed him this wonderful attention for quite some time, thoroughly enjoying the different sounded she could get him to make, cataloguing what worked better and what didn't, and otherwise taking pride in making her boy feel good. She finally ended her efforts with an experiment, more to sate her own curiosity. She forced herself to relax as much as she could, took him into her mouth, and then kept going, feeling his tip pushing into her throat. "Oh holy shit!" he cried out, but she couldn't hold it long, forcing her to come up off of it in a hurry.

Saliva trailed out of her mouth in a web across his shaft as she pulled away, trying not to gag. Her eyes opened wide and gave a silly smile, completely breaking character, but she didn't care. That reaction was perfect. She stroked him slowly, getting herself back into the right headspace, amazed at how much spit she'd generated.

"I don't suppose you enjoyed that, did you?" She asked as she rose and crawled up his body, pushing him fully down against the bed as she did.

He nodded at her for a moment before he could remember to speak. "Yeah, maybe a little." He said as she straddled across his body, sitting on his lower abdomen. She could feel his shaft nestling in between the cleft of her bottom, and suppressed a giggle.

Deke let his hands wander up her body, grateful for a chance to cool down. The smooth satin material felt incredible to his touch, and what laid beneath it felt even better. He discovered the closures which fastened her corset, looking like oversized bra snaps. Those he could operate, so he took his own time releasing her from the garment, undoing one at a time and working his way up from the bottom, resisting the urge to make a joke about saving the breast for last.

When he did release her breasts, they spilled out with a bounce. She was just barely over the line where they could be called big, but still within the realm of gravity defying, and topped with small pink nipples that were currently poking straight out. Deke trailed his tongue up and between them, causing her to hum in pleasure.

She instinctively ground into him as he licked and kissed and nibbled on her, his grip firm. He'd learned something from watching her the night before and had decided to try it. She seemed to appreciate it, so he kept that pressure on her, kneading her breasts with his fingertips. When he licked her nipple, she shivered, causing her to get her hands mixed up in his hair. She took the opportunity to lean into him, pressing her breasts into his face, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

He licked and sucked on her peaks for a good while, before her grinding became too much to ignore. He loved how kinetic she was in bed, enjoying seeing and feeling her move. Since she seemed to be giving herself some attention elsewhere through her grinding, he rolled over with her, putting her back onto the mattress.

He began trailing kisses down her abdomen, causing her to shiver, and goosebumps to form. He loved giving her goosebumps, something about it just made him feel better about life. She began breathing heavily as he worked lower, her anticipation building. He kissed and nibbled on and around where her hips and abdomen met, in that V shaped line which trailed to her sex. The sensation was simultaneously tickling and oddly erogenous, confusing her body for a moment.

As he moved, his body coming slowly off the bed and onto his knees before her, he began pulling the satin thong she was wearing down, exposing her before him. He blew on her skin gently, which brought more shivers and goosebumps, before flicking his tongue around. Like her, his experience was obviously limited, bolstered by his own research into the matter. He'd paid attention to what she enjoyed on previous visits though, and applied that learning to her.

As he worked his way around, tasting her lower lips, he marveled at her arousal. The girl was extremely wet, enough so that beads of her dew would pull away with the tip of his tongue while he settled in to enjoy what she had to offer.

On the bed, she whimpered and moaned, his tongue teasing her mercilessly. Her body tingled as he worked, each brush of his tongue another wave of the fan on her fire. He pulled her bottom closer to the edge of the bed, and wrapped his arms under and around her, which allowed him to use his hands to get better access to her.

Her sex was shy, but not completely, her delicate folds just barely hiding within her outer lips, while her button sat just barely above. Like the rest of her, he found it absolutely beautiful. Barbara's hands found both his head, and her breast as he licked her, keeping the motions of his tongue slow. He was exploring farther than he usually did, she noticed, running his tongue around all of her. Even that observation didn't prepare her for what he did next.

His nose brushed her delicate skin as he worked lower, which confused Barbara for a second, before she felt his tongue flicker _somewhere else_. The sensation was certainly different, and it caused her to squirm as he kept making small circles against her bottom with his tongue. She couldn't deny that it felt amazing though, so naughty. "Do you want me to stop?" He asked after a moment, not sure if her reactions were positive or not.

"No, you can keep going." Barbara panted as she squeezed one of her nipples, glad she'd taken the time to freshen herself up. He lifted her legs up to gain better access, and busied his tongue against her bottom for several minutes, before he flattened his tongue and ran it from her bottom to her button, pressing down firmly.

When his tongue finally struck that bundle of nerves, she bucked instinctively. He wrapped an arm back around her legs to help keep her in place, and focused his attention there. His free hand, he used to lightly stroke her opening, feeling the heat of her arousal. She was already well on her way to climax when she felt his finger slip inside of her, gently pumping into her as he licked and sucked on her button. When he added a second finger, and began moving them relatively independently, the dam broke and her orgasm tore through her.

She rode it out, her voice pitching up as she climaxed. He wasn't done with her though, and just steadily worked those two fingers into her while he continued to dance over her button with his tongue. A second, followed by a third orgasm rocked her, already bringing her into screaming territory.

He let off of her after that, slowing down with her so she could catch her breath for a moment. When he rose, stepping fully out of his jeans, Barbara sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply, tasting herself on his mouth. "Deke." She said, looking him straight in the eyes. "I want you to fuck me."

That was certainly new. He obliged her though, getting into a kneeling position on the bed, taking her legs and moving them into a comfortable position for both of them, and then lining himself up with her.

He drove into her, sinking to the hilt in his first stroke. Her eyes rolled in pleasure as she felt filled by her lover. She wrapped her still stockinged legs around him, pulling him in as he drove into her. He didn't just start jackhammering her, instead making each stroke powerful, slamming his hips into her, and her shoulders and head back into the pillows. He kept driving into her until she felt it building within her. She had a grip on his arms, above his elbows, and dug her fingertips in when it hit, this one much more powerful than the ones he'd given her with his tongue. She shrieked in pleasure, locking her muscles tight for a moment as it tore through her body.

This was beginning to overwhelm him though, especially with her attention to him earlier. He had to start shutting down his pleasure center again, though he did so much more gradually, he wanted to delay his finish, not ignore the incredible sensations they were sharing.

Deke flipped her over onto her stomach, and she was about to raise her hips to make it easier for him to take her from behind, but he rested his hands on her back and gently pushed her down. She was at first worried he was going to try more with her bottom, but he instead placed the tip of himself at her Vee and slipped back into her, still choosing to have her from behind, but not the same as before.

She was already a snug fit, but with her legs pushed together, it was even more so. The friction was intense around his shaft as he pressed into her, and if he thought it was amazing for him, it was just as much for her too. He put his hands on her bottom and squeezed, kneading the powerful muscles she possessed, and picked up the speed once they were both comfortable in the new position.

Conveniently, there was a pillow in her face, which she used to great effect in muffling her as she felt another climax ripple through her. She almost hated how physically sensitive she was. Each orgasm, while incredibly pleasurable, was draining, and she was having them quick in succession. This needed to change.

After the last one, she wiggled her bottom a bit to catch his attention. "Lay down." She instructed, and when he withdrew and laid down on the bed, she took her place above him. When she took his shaft to guide him back within her, she noticed how slick it was from her own body. The very short hair he kept was also matted from her natural lubrication, which she found interesting.

When his head was cleared, she came down on it, not as aggressive as she'd done their last time. She needed to slow things down and was rolling her hips on him instead of bouncing, setting up a much more gradual energy between them. Beneath her, she saw him smiling, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the sensations. Again his hands went to her breasts, just enjoying the feeling of them in his palms. She could keep this pace up forever, and used it to her advantage, riding him slowly until her next climax washed over her. She tossed her head and hair back as she experienced it, biting her fingertip as she moaned through it.

The sight of her riding him to orgasm was almost too much for him. While it was generally accepted that men were more physical while women were more mental, his psychic gifts had made him a lot more cerebral, and her, in this perfect moment, had almost caused him to suddenly finish.

"Woah. Wow." He said breathily, his limbs trying to go numb. He summoned his will and fought the sensation down, but only just barely.

Barbara, realizing he was doing _something_ , slowed herself down. "I'm well and satisfied." She said through panting breath. "You don't have to hold back."

"Okay." He said, and put his hands on her hips, restoring his pleasure center. He'd expected her to set back to what she'd been doing, but when she came off of him and slid her body down, he knew she had other plans.

She took him back in her mouth, and made no pretense to teasing him, instead just going for it. She wondered as she sought to bring him off, if she liked the taste of a woman in general, or just herself, which left her puzzled as to whether she was at least bi-curious, or narcissistic.

No such thoughts ran through his head, as he was incapable of higher thought at the moment. The way she'd dove on him, hungry, had done a number on him, already bringing him back to the edge. She might not have a proper bag of tricks, but she went through everything she knew to finish her boy. "Uhm," he muttered, trying to warn her. "I'm uh," He tried to tell her again, but she didn't let up at all.

"Babs," he said, his voice distant and muted over his breathing. "I'm gonna finish." He finally said, and waited for her to move her head away, except she didn't. There was no stopping it now either.

Barbara took him deep again, and felt the first of several eruptions as he began to fill her mouth. Each pulse gave her more to contend with, and she began trying to swallow it before it choked her. It wasn't easy with him in her mouth, but mercifully, she was able to contain the situation until he was finished. The taste of their sexes mingling in her mouth stimulated her both mentally and physically, her finding something very primal and deep in the symbolism.

She swallowed one final time and looked up at him, releasing his shaft from her mouth with a pop. She batted her eyes at him and smiled as she crawled back up his body. "I told you, after last night, reparations were in order."

Still trying to regain control of his body, he could only muster a nod and an okay. Having had a little time to recuperate, Barbara climbed off the bed, though she was still wobbly on her feet as she did so. She couldn't deny, they had really good sex.

Her first stop was the water bottle she kept on his desk. She drank the last of it, chasing their flavors from her mouth. It was exceedingly hot in the moment, but the aftertaste left something to be desired. "You know, if you could figure out how to make that taste like chocolate, I'd never let you out of bed." She said with a wink.

That might have been the wrong thing to say to someone with psychometabolic abilities. He had remarkable control over his own body after all, and now he also had a goal. "By this time next year, if not sooner." He said to her, and watched as she tossed the empty bottle in his wastebasket, before grabbing her phone off of his dresser.

Except it wasn't her phone, which was sitting next to his on the desk, plugged into the charger. She sat down next to her boy, a small black object in her hands. "So, I will delete this without a second thought." She began, showing him the video of their lovemaking on the small back screen. "And I promise you, this camera lacks any wireless technology."

"You wanted video of us having sex?" He asked, surprised at her. "Why didn't you ask me beforehand?"

She took on a rather bashful look. "I didn't want you to feel obligated because I wanted to, and I wanted to see what it looked like from an outside perspective. Are you mad at me?"

Deke pondered that for a minute. She had taken the approach of it being easier to ask forgiveness than permission with him, something he never would have considered with her. But, she'd immediately fessed up, and had offered to delete it if that's what he wanted. She also hadn't tried to coerce him or convince him. In the end, he couldn't be mad at her. "Hell no, I ain't mad. I'm kinda flattered you wanna watch us doin' it. Everyone needs a spank bank."

"A 'spank bank'?" She asked, showing him the tip of her tongue and shaking her head at him. That's _exactly_ what she planned to use it for, but having him just full on call her out on it was just funny. "You're sure?" She asked though, wanting to make certain.

"Yeah, it's cool. It ain't like Artemis hasn't already watched us, and I know you're not the type to show it off." He said to her as he sat completely up on the bed, his attention already drawing more totally towards the little screen.

"You know I'm not." She said, also getting drawn into watching them. "Where'd you find that music though? I didn't think you were a fan of Trip Hop."

"Well, I kinda am now," He said with a snicker. "But I googled 'best music to have sex to' and skipped past all the pop and stuff, and found this station on Slacker."

"You silly boy." She said, and kissed him on the cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too." He said, and pulled her to the bed to re-watch their efforts.


	26. Chapter 26

July 22nd  
Flatwoods Kentucky  
0630

They'd had another go after resting for a while, which had wiped the both of them out to the point of dehydrated exhaustion, but Deke had the presence of mind to take the aluminum foil off his windows. He didn't need it anymore, and it only served to mess up their sleep cycles, so when the sun began to rise the next morning, Barbara found herself waking up naturally.

She was rather sore after last night's activities, especially with the more aggressive approach he'd taken with her. It was absolutely worth the aches though, so she wouldn't see herself complaining any time soon.

While he slept, she silently withdrew clothes from her duffel and got dressed. She was happy not to have neighbors within a half a mile as she had slept in the nude, something she couldn't do in Gotham, not without running the risk of being spied on by someone in the building across the street.

She didn't know the area whatsoever, but she was determined to run some of the soreness out of her body, so she grabbed her phone and left the house after taking care of morning business and having some water, running down the long driveway and onto the country road. She kept the volume on her music down for safety, since she lacked any sidewalk, which forced her to run on the side of the road.

Even this early, it was growing oppressively hot and humid, causing her to sweat heavily after only a quarter mile. She soldiered on as she followed her navigation app, following a back country road well around the area. She giggled to herself as she realized she was fully and properly up a holler.

By the time she returned home, Barbara was thoroughly soaked in sweat, her hair almost colored black from moisture, and her sports bra and shorts were showing serious salt lines. "It gets too damn hot here." She muttered to herself as she walked inside and stripped, tossing her clothes into the washer.

She headed upstairs after getting coffee started, and slipped into the shower, noticing her boy was still fast asleep in bed. Their second round had been all him after she kept teasing him while they watched the porn they'd made. He'd definitely taken her for a whirl, but he was paying the price for it now.

She just rinsed off, getting rid of the combined sweat and sex. Barbara had plans for once she got her lazybones of a boyfriend out of bed, and they involved going back outside. A full wash up would just be a waste of time.

Finished washing, she got dressed in regular clothes, which in this case was the Alice in Chains tee shirt she'd been given, and some knee length capris. Like the dress and pants she'd worn last night, the tee shirt was a bit snug, but it was so comfortably broken in it didn't feel constricting.

Okay, her boy was a sleepyhead, there was no argument. She strolled into his room, intent on waking him up, when a smell assaulted her nostrils. There was no possible doubt they'd had sex in there the night before. Looking around, she found a long wooden box and was pleased to see some incense sticks contained within. She lit one, and set it on his desk, before she crawled into bed next to him.

"Are you gonna sleep the whole day away?" She asked sweetly, whispering the question into his ear.

"I'd kinda planned on it." Deke said, rolling over to look at her through sleepy eyes. "Can you conjure up a terribly compelling reason for me not to?"

"Did you just quote Firefly to me?" She asked. "Because here's your gorram reason!" She said, and assaulted him with tickles. This had him up and out of bed in an instant, trying valiantly to fend his girlfriend off. It didn't matter how he did though, one way or another, he was awake.

"You win." He said, throwing his hands up in defeat. "You leave me enough hot water?"

"Yeah, but I have plans, so you might want to hold off." She said. "I just rinsed the runner's sweat. You could've joined me if you'd woken up you know." She added, poking him in the stomach.

Deke made a face at her. "I was kinda worn out, and not sure if you noticed, I wasn't sleeping all night either." He said, gesturing to his torso, which bore little to no bruising whatsoever. He'd been busy.

"Okay, you get a pass. I'd rather see you not hurting. There's always tomorrow to run, and besides, I wanted you to take me hiking today." She said to him as he sat up and swung out of bed.

"That I can do." He told her as he looked for clothes for the day. "What are we doing for breakfast?"

"Coffee is on, and I've got some fruits and oatmeal." Barbara said as she watched him pull his clothes on. "I suppose you'll want a bowl of Super O's?" She said in a teasing tone.

"Well, yeah, but I can eat the other stuff too." He said, turning to wink at her. "I know, I know, I'm a garbage disposal."

"Yes you are." She said, running an arm across his shoulders as she left the room to get breakfast going. "You're cooking dinner tonight, by the way."

"Sure, you've been cooking too much lately." He called out after her, trying to get some socks on. He made a stop in the bathroom, and then headed downstairs to see her getting some fruit ready to be slices.

"Actually, you want me to get that?" He offered, walking up behind her and kissing her on the neck, below her ear. It was tickly, but comforting to her. "Take care of your light work maybe?"

"I'll let you." She said, trying to give him room to work, but he stayed still, and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her from behind. She put her hands on his and held on, and then watched as the strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, and grapes she'd sat out began floating in the air, an inch or so above the cutting board.

For a moment, they did nothing, until a quiet screeching sound filled the air, like the sound of a knife being drawn across a whetstone. The fruit fell, struck the board, and fell into small pieces. "Showoff." She muttered, and turned in his arms to plant a smooch on him.

"Hey, I like showing off for you." He protested, after her lips had graced his cheek. "Besides, it's more efficient, no knife to clean up, and it's practice for me too."

"You had to make the rest of that up, didn't you?" She asked with an arched eyebrow.

"You'll never know." He said, lifting the teapot off the stove and floating it to the bowls she'd laid out, before pouring some hot water into each to let the dried oatmeal soak it up.

"You ass." She said with a giggle, tickling him again after he'd set the teapot down.

"Yep, but I'm your ass. Well, no I'm not, because then your pants wouldn't fit right." He quipped at her. "I'd be all yelling "Hi, I'm an intelligent fart!" at a random passerby."

"Would you stop that!" She said, trying to fight back a full blown fit of giggles. "I mean it Deke!"

"I do too! That'd be funny, I could have my hands pressed up against the butt of your uniform like your ass was possessed by the Devil." He said, pantomiming it, complete with ridiculous facial expressions.

That was it, she lost the battle. She was wracked by laughter, the sound of it joyous to his ears. He loved hearing and seeing her in a fit of giggles, though he tried not to do it to her that often. She could become deadly serious and intense at the drop of a hat sometimes, so letting her get the silly out was a fun experience.

Barbara had to sit herself down before she fell down, still trying to contain herself. Deke finished up breakfast, and had indeed also made himself a bowl of Super O's. Through her laughter, Barbara just felt warm inside. She didn't need a man to feel complete, but having one was nice, and having this one in particular was even better.

Once they'd finished eating, Deke laced up his boots and brought his beloved down her own boots. Barbara filled water bottles and they took off. Not even ten in the morning and the heat and humidity had climbed into the nineties. Barbara was beginning to regret asking for this, but her boy seemed not to notice. Once they got into the woods though, the shade of the trees helped.

Deke took point as they went, heading up the hill. Barbara steered from the back, wanting to see the accident site above the house. It was a steep climb, but nothing impossible. For a girl used to navigating the steel canyons of Gotham, it seemed almost too easy.

"Don't move." Deke said, coming to an abrupt stop about halfway up the hill. Barbara froze, and began glancing around, her trained eyes soaking up information immediately. For a moment, nothing happened, until a rust colored snake lifted up off the ground several feet over a pile of dead leaves, and was moved a couple dozen yards out of the way. "Copperhead." He said to her once they began moving again. "Their venom is really weak, and they're pretty docile, but a bite's a bite, so I figured it was easier to send him packing."

"How in the hell did you see that?" She asked. They weren't five feet from the thing.

"Same way you can pick a guy with a gun out of a crowd and I can't. Call it native environment." He said, and kept on. They went on longer, still climbing up and up, when she noticed the plant life starting to thin out as they went. Not much further and it turned into something of a free climb, all plant life dead and gone.

Finally on top, the first thing Barbara noticed was the crater. Deke had said the blast had taken the hilltop with it, but the shallow bowl shaped depression in the ground was a clear indication he might have misunderstood what had happened. Barbara reached into her pocket and pulled out a couple of items. The first was a dosimeter, a small device used to detect radiation. The other was a pair of binoculars.

"Of course you're investigating." Deke said, shaking his head at her. He left her to it, and began surveying the area on his own. There'd been plenty of rain and snow since the accident, plenty of seeds in the wind, the place shouldn't be completely dead, but there it was, a blighted empty depression.

"Do me a favor and go to the other side of the crater please." Barbara asked him, while she plugged some numbers into the calculator on her phone. Her boy just shrugged, levitated himself a few inches into the air, and drifted that way. She would have scolded him for showing off again, but it _was_ more expedient.

She glanced at him through her binoculars, and tapped a button. An invisible laser beam shot out from the optics, and reflected off of him, back to the sensor, telling her the diameter of the crater. Deke floated back over towards her as she mathed some things out. She made a remote connection to a proxy of the Batcomputer, and accessed a database of known explosives, then cross referenced soil and water data to the local area, and began compiling a model.

Deke kept his mouth shut. She was doing some serious forensics, and he was having a fun time watching. He did keep moving as she worked, putting him between her and the sun, causing his shadow to protect her from the unmitigated light. He, thanks to some native heritage, handled sunlight like a champ. She, on the other hand, not so much.

Barbara, oblivious to much at the moment, just kept crunching data, occasionally looking out over the valley beneath her through her binoculars, taking measurements and making observations while her algorithm worked independently on her phone.

How she could do all this with a cell phone was beyond Deke however. He knew she had a pretty badass mobile, but a phone was still a phone. He chalked it up to being one more reason she was truly an exceptional woman, and let himself feel lucky for having her.

They were up there for a good while, over an hour, before she was satisfied with her data. "Let's get back to the house to cool off before I explain anything." She said to him. Despite his efforts to shield her from the sun, which she both noticed and appreciated, she was already feeling herself starting to cook, and it was edging towards noon.

The trip down, though more treacherous, was also more exciting. She talked him into scree running to the treeline, which was about as much sliding and falling as it was running. They laughed and cheered as they went down, but Barbara at least kept her eye on things. He might not mind much hitting a tree too fast, but she would.

Downhill, the hike itself went more quickly, especially as the base of the hill began leveling out to their advantage, the grade becoming much less steep. When they finally got home, they were both good and worn out, and seriously hot. Upon entering, the cool air gave them pause, just reveling in it. Deke stripped down to his underwear, and Barbara followed suit, both too wiped to really enjoy the view.

They sat down at the table with several water bottles, and Barbara began explaining her data. "Something's fishy about what happened up there." She said, and put her hand on his. "I'm not accusing you of lying or anything, I think you were lied to."

Deke put on a poker face, and looked at his love. "Okay, I believe you. What do you think?"

"Well, industrial drilling would leave holes deep enough to remain, even after the couple of years it's been. A chain reaction explosion would have caused different damage too. Also, the complete lack of growth on the top of the hill is evidence of something else at play. Percussive damage wouldn't create a near perfect ring of blight. We went from green, to dead, to nothing in a pretty measured distance." Barbara said, sparing him the technical details. She didn't think he wasn't smart enough to get it, but there was no real reason to break down the math.

"So, it wasn't a drilling accident?" He asked, still poker faced. He had a million questions, he wanted to get furious that his mother might not have had to die. Instead, he just kept a lid on it.

"No baby, I don't think so. You and your mom got hurt with shrapnel from the explosion. Given the distances and the way explosives work, the blast would have had to have originated in the center of what they were calling industrial bores. Plus, their lawyer, how long did it take for him to show up?"

Deke pondered that for a moment. "Few hours, tops, I'd guess." He said, sipping at a bottle of water.

"Which makes me think they were prepared for that happening. Also, they opened with a pretty fair sum of money. You said it was enough to get the place fixed, but I noticed all the appliances and everything are still pretty new and fairly high quality. Your mom was able to do a full remodel, wasn't she?" Barbara asked. She'd noticed the newness of the interior, which had contrasted with the postwar construction of the place. Once they'd knocked the dust off, it became even more jarring.

"She never said exactly how much, but yeah, it was enough to pay for her car, plus half the mortgage after the work got done."

"So, the lawyer shows up, hands over a check big enough to make your mom not want to seek out any legal assistance, he probably told her that it was all he was authorized to do and hiring an attorney would eat a third of it. He gets her to sign future liability rights while he's at it, and you two had no reason to push it far enough to warrant investigation. Cowboy, I'm sorry, but after you'd told me about a foolish accidental millionaire looking for diamonds, I had a bad feeling you and your mom had gotten played. Now I'm sure of it."

"Kinda blows holes in my origin story, doesn't it?" Deke asked, his poker face slipping. He was fighting hard to keep his emotions in check. He was just as capable of projecting his feelings as any other person, but if he wasn't careful, his could become contagious.

Barbara stood up and walked over to him, placing her hands on his shoulders. "This is probably confusing, and I really hope you're not upset with me, but I thought you needed to know." She said, and then leaned down to hug him

"Darlin', I ain't mad at you. I don't really know what I'm feelin' right now." He grumbled, and rose from the kitchen table.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm here." Barbara told him, her tone kind. "If you want a distraction, I'm here for you too."

"I don't much wanna talk about it right now, and I really don't want to take you upstairs in this mood. You don't deserve what I'd probably do." He said, and kissed her on forehead. "I love you though, that doesn't change. I think I just need to figure out who I am again."

"Deke, that accident didn't define you. You're still you, and I love you too."

"Yeah, you're right. I just need to think about this for a while."


	27. Chapter 27

July 22nd  
Flatwoods Kentucky  
1245 EST

The Japanese language had Barbara's favorite word to describe her skills. _Kunoichi_ , it was, and it meant lady ninja. There was a lot more to it, involving spying and other non-Hollywood related ninja activities, but it had such a ring to it. If nothing else, she was certainly as silent as one.

She'd crept up to the barn turned garage to check on her boy after leaving him alone for an hour. She was going to offer to make lunch, but when she saw what he was doing, she decided to keep quit a moment and watch the scene play out.

He'd hung a heavy bag up in the corner of the room, and was in the process of beating the hell out of it. He grumbled curses under his breath as he went to town on the old bag, throwing punches and elbows. Barbara winced every time he struck the bag, his form wasn't all that great. She wasn't about to correct him though, instead, she kept watching, slipping further into the garage to watch and listen closer.

He kept swearing as he hit. He wasn't prone to really coarse language, but he was saying things that threatened to turn Barbara's ears blue, and she'd done plenty of stakeouts around the docks. As he went, he lost all concept of rhythm, just constantly hitting faster and harder. When he finally seemed ready to burn out, he threw several more punches, a few elbows, a knee or two, and finished with a vicious headbutt.

"I know you're there." He said, leaning against the bag, trying to catch his breath. His hair was almost black from the sweat that was pouring off of him and down his body, leaving his plain white tank top almost transparent. "You're worried."

"I am." Barbara said, walking up to him. When he raised his head off his arm to look at her, she could see a rash of red skin on his forehead. That was going to irritate him later, she knew that firsthand. "You have every right to be upset, I'd just prefer you didn't shut me out. This is the kinda stuff you don't see in the superhero brochures, I've seen it, I've felt it, and I want to be here for you."

He wanted to lash out at her, tell her she didn't know his situation at all, but she didn't deserve that at all. Instead, he closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and tried to reign his adrenaline in. "Okay. I uhm, I'm mad because I feel like my mother was murdered. It might have been after the fact, but it still counts. I'm also torn up because I wouldn't have even bothered trying to help Miss Halston if I didn't have these powers, so me getting them let me meet you, fall in love with you, have the chance to help people in Metropolis, and decide I wanted to be a superhero, and all of that gave me the courage to decide to go to school. So, that one event _did_ define me."

That explained plenty to Barbara. "Point taken." She said quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Now, do you let it eat you up, or do you channel it into something productive, so your mother didn't die in vain?"

She understood why he'd been so excited for her to join him here. It wasn't for the near endless opportunities for sex, or for the chance to spend time with her. He was introducing her to his family, showing her who he was and where he came from.

"I thought I _was_ doing something productive." He said, pointing to the heavy bag.

"Preparing to beat the piss out of somebody once you found out who was responsible? Maybe setting up a one man crusade?" She asked, knowing all about it. Alfred had told her the stories. That's how Bruce got to where he was, and it's how Dick first justified becoming Robin.

"Well, yeah, pretty much." Deke said, confused as to why she was asking him questions to which she already knew the answers.

"So, you can go in blind, hope your powers are enough to keep you alive until you can exact your justified revenge?" She said, arms crossed in front of her chest. She knew what was up, and he was the damn psychic in the relationship.

"When you put it like that…" he drawled, realizing she was working him into a logic trap. "Okay, fine, do it my way and maybe I get lucky, but I'm a train wreck about it. Do it your way, and I'll actually accomplish something, like bringing the people responsible to proper justice?"

"Yeah, pretty much that Cowboy, except you don't do it my way, necessarily. You're part of a team now, a team of people who look bored to tears just preparing for a natural disaster. You don't need the League's permission to run down a few leads. Trust me, if that was the case, Nightwing would have never taken lead on the team." Barbara explained.

Deke began unwrapping the tape from his hands and forearms. "Alright then. I have a goal, and I have a starting point."

"More than that Cowboy, you've got friends." She said as she leaned against the Chevelle. "Now, how about we go inside, have a small lunch, maybe share a shower, and take a nap together?"

"All of those things," he said, making a circular gesture. "Are things that I need right now."

"Then shall we?" She asked, taking his hand.

"Yes, we shall." He answered, heading inside with her.

"Just one more thing." Barbara said, halfway to the house. "Please, never forget I'm here for you. Two way street, you and me. Artemis doesn't say we're good for each other because we have good sex, it's because she saw the way we take care of each other."

"Okay, deal." He said, and gave her hand a squeeze.

* * *

She'd been right, again. He was getting used to it. Just lunch and a shower had helped tremendously. That they shared the shower didn't hurt at all. They were both too tired to fool around, and he still wasn't in the best of moods, but seeing a hot naked woman was still a win. Getting to wash that hot naked woman's hair, that was better, but having that hot naked woman wash his hair for him was the best.

They'd dried off and curled up in bed together. Barbara had set an alarm and then let herself get wrapped up in his arms. He was holding onto her more tightly than usual, which she figured she knew the reason why, and just enjoyed being loved.

They slept a couple of hours, letting the worst of the day's heat pass them by in the cool air of Deke's old bedroom. Barbara woke first, and had a small giggle at the poking she felt on her bottom. She moved to slip out of his grasp, but he squeezed tighter on her, burying his nose into her hair. She blushed at his treatment of her; it was nice to be loved.

"Can you let me up to go pee, please?" She asked as his nose tickled her. He let her go, and opened one eye at her.

"Sorry," he muttered, trying to return to wakefulness.

"Don't apologize for loving me." She said, scolding but being very sweet about it. "I don't apologize for loving you."

"Sweet." He said, still muttering. He sat up and shook his head clear. Looking down at his 'reaction' he just scowled. "What the hell are you pointing at?" he said, and had a laugh at himself.

When Barbara returned, he was pulling a clean shirt on. Giggling at the sight of her boy, she sat on the bed and patted it next to her. Looking perplexed, he sat down with her. She slipped behind him and produced the hairbrush she'd brought with her, working out the epic bed head he'd developed. "I told you your hair was still damp." She chided as she smoothed his mane out.

"Yeah yeah yeah." He said, enjoying the feeling. "We can't all be born with perfect hair like you."

She blushed at the compliment, and began running her fingers through his hair out of pure selfish desire. Like she'd said, they were a two way street, and his love of her hair was just to the safe side of obsession; she wasn't much different, she just hid it better. "Thank you my lovely." She said, and kissed him on the cheek.

He let her play with his hair for a few more minutes before turning around and taking the brush. "Your turn." He said, and began running the brush through her sunset colored locks. He loved the way the silky smooth strands slipped between his fingers, and the wonderful scent of her shampoo. Wildflowers, a rather feminine scent for such a dangerous girl.

"So, totally different, and completely not heavy subject, but I was thinking." She said, her voice distant and relaxed.

"Okay, you're always thinking. It's one of the things that makes you so attractive." He said, still casually brushing, getting lost in his work.

"Keep talking like that and my ego won't fit in the room." She chided softly. "But seriously, I was thinking about getting another tattoo."

"Yeah? What were you thinking of getting?"

"I don't know, that's why I mentioned it." She said with a shrug. "I can't get sleeves, or anything else really visible since I'm planning on a professional career, and at least for now that's unfortunately still a no-no."

Her body was still a very blank canvas, with only one small piece of work done to her. It should absolutely be something important to her, but it couldn't link Barbara Gordon to Batgirl either. "Something on the hips would look cool and stay hidden under anything you'd wanna wear at work." He said after several minutes of humming and pondering.

"See, that's what I was thinking too." She said with a frown. "But that doesn't help me figure out what's going there."

"Hey, I'm doing the best I can here. You're not the flowers and stars kinda girl. Hell, you're quite literally like no woman I've ever met."

"Would you quit flirting with me?" Barbara said with a giggle, reaching around to swat at him. "I'm getting tired of blushing."

"Never!" he cried out, wrapping his arms around her and bringing her down to the bed with him. She giggled louder but got cut short when he maneuvered around and kissed her. He needed this, desperately, he needed her. Deke didn't fault her for turning his understanding of the world upside down, but it had still happened all the same. At the moment, she was the only real, stable thing he had, and he wasn't going to let go of it.

To Barbara, the sudden activity surprised her. She found herself tangled up with her boy, lips and limbs all twisted together. She felt his hands move to her face, cupping her cheeks, holding her. She felt the need in his actions, felt truly wanted. His touch was firm, and strong, but not overpowering or insistent. Loved, that's exactly what she felt.

She pulled away from him, reluctantly, after several minutes, and just squeezed back, brushing his hair with her hands. He buried his face into her chest and shoulders, and for a moment, she thought he was going to cry on her. She couldn't blame him at all, in fact, if the roles were reversed, she would have.

Instead, he maneuvered his face between her breasts and motorboated her, causing a peal of laughter to erupt from her. He kept it up, causing her to swat at him to make him stop. "Deacon!" She tried to scold, but it was hard, as tickled as she was.

He looked up at her though and smiled. "You're perfect." He said as she caught her breath. "You are so fucking perfect."

"Language, you." She chided, and leaned over to grab a shirt so she wasn't completely naked. "Thank you though." She added, once she'd pulled her head through the massive shirt, realizing it was one of his. Was she stealing clothes subconsciously now? Was that a thing she did?

"Sorry, but it's true. You're perfect. There is nothing you can't do." He said, and gestured towards his dresser, beckoning a drawer open and causing a pair of boxer shorts to float across the room. They'd sit extremely low on her hips, so she probably wouldn't want to wear them outside, but to just be comfortable in the house, they'd certainly do.

"Have you heard me sing?" She asked, slipping into the shorts. Why did men get to have such comfortable clothing?

"Yep, regular choir of angels." He said to her.

"Regular choir of dying goats maybe." She argued, showing him the tip of her tongue.

"Hey, you sing just fine." He retorted, kissing her on the forehead. "What do you want to do with the rest of the day?"

Barbara thought about that a moment. "I want to explore." She said after a moment. "We've got several days left, I want to see what else this place has to offer."

Deke leaned in and kissed her again. "I don't have much to offer, but I can show you." He said with a wink.

"Oh, I have no doubt. We're going to explore that too." She said, kissing him back.

* * *

July 22nd  
Unknown Location  
1427 Zulu

"Subject Eleven is still occupying former residence." A tech said, stubbing his cigarette into an ashtray beside the computer he was observing.

"Eleven's back?" Another tech asked, scrunching her nose up at the smell of smoke. "When'd he get back?"

"Couple days ago." The first tech said. "We picked up air cavitation that matched his projected flight methods. Since then he's laid low. He's got someone with him if the water and power usage in the house is any indication."

"We have to report this." The female tech said, cleaning her glasses on her labcoat. "Doctor Hampton will want to see it."

"I already did. He proposed sending a team in but since we lost him in Gotham, we've got evidence that he's done a few patrols. I told him the team might get more than we're prepared to handle." The male tech said, turning completely to converse with his colleague.

"So, why not isolate and contain the companion? See what Eleven will do." She said, going back through old files on her tablet. "Evidence of him in Gotham indicates he's right on path."

"Oh hell no. Ten, Eleven, and Sixteen are hands off. Any one of them, properly motivated, could crack this planet in half for the right reasons. If that's a girl with him, do you really want him going to full power to be the hero?"

The female tech frowned. "No, that would be very bad. Wait, did you say Sixteen? I thought we only had twelve?"

"Cadmus took overflow for Thirteen through Seventeen, so we could draw a bigger sample size."

"Cadmus, those dirty bastards? I thought they were pure genetics and cloning. Did they grow those five?" It was clear the female tech wasn't a fan of the lab. "And can they point back to us? The last thing we need is to get implicated in something dirty they've done."

"No, I don't think so, but I wasn't excited about them handling some of the experiment either." The male tech said, taking a moment to admire the smooth brown skin of his coworker. When she caught him staring, she pulled her coat closed.

"Why do you think it's a girl with him anyway?"

"Goes back to power usage. If it were another male, there'd be more power used, to explain the lights in another bedroom being on. Plus, Eleven took the car, and trackers put it at a grocery store, and a building which apparently houses some kind of barn dancing on the weekends."

"Eleven may be homosexual. We couldn't get the best profile on him before we had to terminate the catalyst." She said, reminding her unfortunately only coworker on site that it was possible.

"You very well might be right, but I don't think so. Call it a gut instinct on that one. You want my honest, off-the-record opinion?"

"Speculate away." She said, frowning as he lit another cigarette. The man smoked like a chimney.

"I think it's Batgirl. We know she's not urban legend, there are verifiable reports of her being in the hospital a few months ago, and it matches the flight path we were able to track to Eleven, plus the timing is right. He goes dark again until Metropolis, where we know for a fact Batman showed up with the sidekicks. Then, out of nowhere, he applied to, and got accepted to Gotham University? Eleven was never expected to be that motivated for self-improvement. Something changed, and if you ask me, he's out of comfort zone all for a woman."

The female tech considered that for a few minutes. "I'd say that should be on record. I'll put that in my monthly evaluation. If you're right, we might be found out and the higher ups need to know about it."

"Yeah, good point." He said, taking another drag off his cigarette. "You think STAR Labs is hiring?"

"If we're caught, you and I, and who knows who else, are going to be making license plates in Belle Reve. I still think terminating the experiment is the safe route." She said, her features growing cloudy.

"If you want to try, I won't stop you, but we don't have a tac team big enough, or bad enough, to take down One through Nine, and they're not even half as dangerous as Ten or Eleven. Cadmus wasn't the only lab worried about Superman. Besides, we're supposed to be the good guys too. Killing sixteen people because we might get caught? I mean, that's scientific progression, but that's also icy."

"We're not the good guys Tom. We're in the business of making them."


End file.
